# Small Time Crooks (2000)

### reviewed by
Akiva Gottlieb

    Small Time Crooks ***
    Rated PG
    DreamWorks SKG
    94 minutes
    starring Woody Allen, Tracey Ullman, Michael Rapaport,
    Tony Darrow, Jon Lovitz, Elaine May, Elaine Stritch,
    Hugh Grant
    written and directed by Woody Allen

    A Review by Akiva Gottlieb

The top rated program on television is called `Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' Think about it; millions of viewers across the world tune in a couple times a week to watch someone else try to make a million dollars (which, sadly, isn't that much anymore). Why? `Small Time Crooks', Woody Allen's latest charmer, is about a money-obsessed New Yorker who realizes that there's more to life than striving to make the big buck.

Playing the money-grubber is nothing new for Allen; a filmmaker whose first movie was called `Take The Money And Run'. In a recent discussion at UCLA, the comic genius (who says he was a poor student) claimed that after being denied a spot in the NYPD because of his height, he planned to become a bank robber. However, fate turned him into a comedian, and he decided to live out his criminal fantasies through the language of film.

In `Small Time Crooks', Woody Allen is Ray Winkler, an ex-con dishwasher who lives a stable Manhattan life with his wife Frenchie (Tracey Ullman), a manicurist. The only things missing from Ray's world are excitement and lots of money. So he decides to call up his dimwitted jail buddies (Michael Rapaport, Tony Darrow, Jon Lovitz) and plot a bank robbery.

The plan is to buy the flower shop next to the bank, run a business as a false front, dig a hole under the bank, take the money and run. Their business is a cookie shop in which Frenchie is the only employee, baking all the treats. Her baking is so good that the shop soon becomes wildly popular, with patrons waiting in line for hours just to buy one or two cookies. Because of the store's newfound popularity, a cop starts to notice the drilling sound that seems to originate in the basement. When the bumbling criminals attempt to break in to the bank, the cop catches them and asks for a piece of the action. So the bank is robbed, and the Winklers are millionaires. And this is just the first segment of `Small Time Crooks'.

In an unexpected, clever move, Woody turns the tables, changing the film into a comic study of the newly rich. Ray and Frenchie are now wealthy and notorious, living a life that is beyond stable, and gradually losing touch with their relationship. Frenchie hires a devious, strikingly handsome Brit named David (Hugh Grant) to give the couple lessons in affluent citizenship, while Ray would like nothing more than an average lifestyle in which he can eat cheeseburgers without feeling guilty. `Small Time Crooks' is enjoyable Allen fluff, a film that is more engaging in its first half, but more insightful in its second. Film critic Andrew Hicks once discussed Woody Allen's films, saying that `he also has quite a catalogue of low-key movies that are entertaining but not particularly noteworthy; movies like ‘Manhattan Murder Mystery' that get three-star ratings in every movie guide you check - no more, no less.' `Small Time Crooks' is one of his aforementioned low-key movies, and it gets three stars in my book.

Even in his 60's, Woody Allen is the hardest working filmmaker in America, putting out at least a film a year. He has gained the respect of `cinephiles' and critics all over the world (and lost the respect of good-natured people with family values), but has never achieved financial success. The funny thing is that `Small Time Crooks', which I perceive to be Woody's admittance that one can't have it all (especially at the box office), is Allen's first film of a three-year deal with Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks company, after years of making his films with independent studios, and is doing pretty good business in the U.S.

`Small Time Crooks', while not as entertaining as Woody's superior `Sweet and Lowdown', should be a breath of fresh air for his fans. After a short acting hiatus, he again casts himself in the lead role, perfectly evoking the Manhattan nerviness, which he portrays so well. The supporting cast, featuring the multitalented Tracey Ullman, fares quite well, and in the end, `Crooks' is like watching `Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?', except its more truthful, educational, and self-affirming.

    Akiva Gottlieb
    critical66@yahoo.com
    http://pictureshow.8m.com

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