Small Time Crooks
Woody Allen’s 2000 film Small Time Crooks is a farce, tempered with lots of humour and wit. It is also Allen’s highest grossing film in North American between 1989′s Crimes and Misdemeanors and 2005′s Match Point. Small Time Crooks, ironically, didn’t do as well as many of his other films internationally. Tracey Ullman was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in the film. Elaine May won the Best Supporting Actress award from the National Society of Film Critics in the United States for her role in the film.
Small Time Crooks stars Woody Allen as the crook, Ray. He is married to Frenchy (Ullman) and wants her help in leasing a restaurant near a bank so that he and his gang can tunnel underneath and rob the bank. Frenchy, meanwhile, is supposed to cover the operation by working the restaurant. She turns it into a cookie shop and her business turns into an incredible success. Ray and his cronies botch the robbery, of course, but Frenchy makes millions through her cookie shop and franchises the whole thing. Ray and Frenchy wind up making millions anyway, without robbing the bank. Trouble ensues, however, when Ray and Frenchy aren’t able to transition successfully into high society. Frenchy hires a guy named David (Hugh Grant) to help educate her on the finer things in life. Ray, meanwhile, wants nothing to do with it.
Small Time Crooks focuses in on the differences between Frenchy and Ray, juxtaposing these differences with both subtle observations and obvious elements of comedic farce. Ray certainly has a lifestyle he is accustomed to. He enjoys watching television and eating fatty foods. Ray also enjoys a life of crime and misses being a crook. Frenchy, on the other hand, eats nothing but gourmet foods and is trying to tell the world that she is ripe for picking in high society. This causes Ray a great deal of stress, as he feels Frenchy is outgrowing him. Frenchy echoes those sentiments for a time, but eventually the pair realize how much they love each other and reality sets in.
Allen’s film is a film about character, of course. It is about the contrast between his two lead characters and about the differences that lurk beneath the surface. Riches may change things for a while, but eventually people return to who they are. Allen’s Ray is always a crook and he will always have that itch to steal things that don’t belong to him, despite the notion that his intelligence and bumbling nature should dictate otherwise. Frenchy is always the incessant bickering partner to Ray, despite the fact that her growth into high society might tell her otherwise. Each character within Allen’s Small Time Crooks listens to their internal spirits more than the external events circulating around them. That, in essence, is what gives the film so much heart.
Woody Allen typically plays only two types of characters. He either tackles the role of an intellectual or he tackles the role of a complete maroon. In Small Time Crooks, it’s the latter. Allen’s performance is top-notch neurosis here. He’s a wandering, stuttering, neurotic mess of a man. Ray’s only shot at holding it together is Frenchy. Frenchy is his reason for living and Allen’s desperation and bumbling nature captures that with concise clarity. Ullman is tremendously entertaining as Frenchy, too, as she nags and bickers with Allen’s Ray with such a rich natural chemistry. It’s hilarious and incredibly poignant at the same time, as the natural essence of this couple pours from the screen.
Small Time Crooks features plenty of other comedic talent to keep things going. Jon Lovitz, Michael Rapaport, and Hugh Grant are all tremendously funny. It’s the rarity of seeing Elaine May, however, that absolutely steals the show as Frenchy’s dunce of a cousin. Says Allen’s Ray about May (see, it rhymes): “Your cousin May is dumb like a horse, or a dog or something.” One hilarious exchange with the character of May involves her talking to a police officer in the cookie shop. He asks her if she’s just started at the cookie shop and May replies, deadpan, “not really. It’s my first day.”
Small Time Crooks is a farce of the highest order, in my view. It does contain some uneven segments and isn’t always laugh-out-loud funny, but it doesn’t have to be to effectively tell this story. The relationship between Ray and Frenchy is sweet and charming in its own way, as the bickering and nonsensical exchanges between the characters highlight a harmless and enticing comedy from Woody Allen. Small Time Crooks is well worth a look.
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