It took three basic cable networks AE History and Lifetime to make the two part four hour Bonnie Clyde miniseries.
Somebody missed an opportunity to rope in Syfy because this take on the Depression era gangsters of 1930s is one for space cadets.
In this retelling Clyde Barrow (Emile Hirsch Milk ) suffers bouts of Donnie Darko style visions that foretell his bloody future.
One key premonition even involves a rabbit although thankfully this one is pet sized. But it is still enough to give Clyde heaving nightmares.
You expect this sort of half hearted attention to reality from Lifetime but History really
Bonnie Parker (Holliday Grainger The Borgias ) starts as a disillusioned bride stuck in a waitressing job.
Tonight s opener (the miniseries is simulcast on all three of the AE sister networks) half heartedly argues for her as a feminist icon the flip side to aviator Amelia Earhart. It then spins into the cliche of the bloodthirsty femme fatale. the Eve to Clyde s nice guy Adam who led him astray.
If you buy this story Clyde just wanted to settle down but Bonnie a rejected dejected wannabe actress longed to make a name for herself. And if she couldn t find a way to do it while being good she d do it by being bad.
See how his head bounced Clyde. Just like a rubber ball she says after shooting one lawman.
One problem with that conclusion is that Clyde s life of crime started long before he hooked up with Bonnie.
And while the miniseries depicts the sexual abuse he suffered during an early prison stint it s a mere footnote in his life and not as many surmise a motive for his hostility toward law enforcement agents.
Hirsch and Grainger spark little as a couple though Grainger proves she s capable of more range than she ever did in Showtime s costume period drama The Borgias.
The four hour mini also truncates the supporting cast of gangsters focusing mostly on Clyde s relationship with brother Marvin Buck (Lane Garrison Prison Break ) and tomorrow Marvin s wife Blanche (Sarah Hyland Modern Family ).
This loose adaptation also plays up a lawman Ted Hinton (Austin Hebert) who is sweet on Bonnie and female reporter P.J Lane (Elizabeth Reaser The Good Wife in a horrific wig) who comes to regret turning the law breakers into heroes. Neither character is especially well developed.
Academy Award winners William Hurt and Holly Hunter take different approaches to their scenes as lawman Frank Hamer and Bonnie s mother Emma respectively. Hurt practically spits bullets as an Old Testament style hunter Hunter underplays maternal concern. Both approaches work.
Spoiler alert Even from beyond the grave Monday night Clyde gets the last word.
Bonnie Clyde
More like Hokum and Bunk.
BONNIE CLYDE Tonight and tomorrow at 9 p.m. on AE History and Lifetime.Grade C
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