Small Time Crooks film review

certificate_PG

SMALL TIME CROOKS

Small Time Crooks is a return to the broad comedy style of Woody Allen's early career. Its optimism is reminiscent of Broadway Danny Rose (1984), while its broad and farcical humour reminds the viewer of Take the Money and Run (1969). It is also Allen's most commercially successful film in years, having taken more than $17 million during its American run this summer.

Ray Winkler, (Allen) is a bumbling schemer who is always looking for one more scam. He rounds up a gang of fellow inadequates and they plan to tunnel into a bank from an empty property nearby which they have bought with their remaining savings. Trouble is very much in store: none of them knows how to use a drill, the shop is not actually next door to the bank and their mapreading skills leave much to be desired. Worst of all, the newly reopened biscuit store, fronted by Ray's wife Frenchy (Ullman), has become an overnight success attracting the unwanted attention of both the TV and the local cops.

In an unexpected and amusing about turn, Ray and Frenchy find their pot of gold and are catapulted into high society. But it doesn't mean automatic happiness: Frenchy dreams of being a doyenne of the arts while Ray pines for the days he stole in order to lose it all at the track. Allen makes a vague theme out of their attempts to be accepted into the elite of society but concentrates mostly on their humorous and often mistaken efforts to impress with their new-found wealth.

While there is plenty to entertain, some of the jokes lack the sharpness of Allen's more sophisticated recent urban comedies (Manhattan Murder Mystery, Husbands and Wives) and the performances become a little forced as a result. Hugh Grant barely works up a sweat as a bumbling English man of the world, an Allen and Ullman are a little overtheatrical in their portrayal of the down-at-heels couple turned good. Nevertheless, even at half-stretch Allen has made another film that most American comedy directors could learn from.