Review of Small Time Crooks (2000) by Harry W — 24 Apr 2014

Said to be a film that came during Woody Allen's 2000's slump but was superior to many of the films he produced at the time, Small Time Crooks sounded interesting.

It is easy to see that Small Time Crooks comes from during Woody Allen's career slump because the material isn't that great. While it follows the Woody Allen formula as strictly as many of his other films, it doesn't take advantage of its plot that much and ends up attempting to be both an effective comedy and a dramatic look at the varying social classes in America. Unfortunately, despite whatever his best efforts may have been, he simply fails to find the appropriate balance to make it work. As a whole, it is only sporadically funny and has some moments, but they are the same generic jokes from so many other Woody Allen films that have been told a hundred times and are no funnier now than they were then. Small Time Crooks doesn't even mimic the jokes from Woody Allen's better films, but rather his significantly more formulaic and generic comedies, so it certainly isn't the most satisfying film.

Small Time Crooks has a decent comedic premise as it has a crime touch to its story, but it really fails to grasp the comedic potential of its themes and the idea of a heist against the backdrop of a Woody Allen story. It just goes into pre-explored territory where it relies on stale gags a lot of the time and weak storytelling. I mean the screenplay is fairly effective for one of Woody Allen's lesser efforts, but the jokes are seriously hit and miss. As a whole, Small Time Crooks is only half-decent because it has its moments and the cast are thoroughly dedicated to making it work, but it simply is not built on the finest material to progress from and so it fails to do so. Woody Allen never really lifts Small Time Crooks off the ground and so it basically goes around in some repetitive circles for the entirety of its _ minute running time with a few moments where it takes unexpected turns, but it manages to weaken whatever originality it tries to put in by failing to allow any really strong jokes to flourish. Woody Allen simply tried a little too weakly in Small Time Crooks and so his film just cannot succeed from the beginning. Despite a story with serious potential, reduced to lame gags and slow pacing, there is never really much energy for Small Time Crooks to take on board.

The problem is that the title is misleading. It suggests that the crime theme that the film lightly touches upon will be a lot more prevalent than it actually is, and that is where the true potential lies. The idea of a nebbish like Woody Allen getting involved with a heist sounds really funny, but instead the film takes a sudden plot twist where the focus becomes on the changing lives of his character and his character's wife as they suddenly strike it rich due to her talent for creating popular cookies. It tries to be an intelligent examination of social classes and how people change as they become wealthy as well as the ridiculous nature of what the upper class people believe makes them better than other people. While Woody Allen explores this theme fairly well, it completely neglects the fact that the title of the film is Small Time Crooks, not Small Time Snobs. There are things that could have been done better in Small Time Crooks, and the focus of the themes is one of them. So Small Time Crooks defies its potential in favour of a more dramatic angle which simply doesn't match the intended mood of the film and deviates away from its roots as a comedy without being insightful enough to truly justify it. Small Time Crooks constantly jumps between its story dynamics and feels more like a series of vignettes than a singular film, and while it feels funny in parts, as a whole it is simply a rudimentary effort on behalf of Woody Allen which shows just how he got himself into his 2000's career slump in the first place.

The successful elements of Small Time Crooks all rest on the efforts of the cast.

Woody Allen is back to playing the basic nebbish again, but the more positive elements of his performance is the way that he interacts with the other cast members in Small Time Crooks. Woody Allen shares a realistic chemistry with Tracey Ullman and an interesting and unpredictable one with Elaine May which manages to make the characters a little more interesting and ensure that Small Time Crooks is a slight bit more compelling than one might have guessed. Woody Allen follows his own lead well enough and delivers his lines with his basic comedic charisma which makes it feel more natural.

Tracey Ullman is fun to see in Small Time Crooks. The woman has had a lot of success in the pre-2000's, so it is good to see her active again in mainstream cinema like in Small Time Crooks. And while I found that her character was rather annoying at times, as a whole she nailed the part because she was able to deliver the lines in the Allen Script without any problem whatsoever. She consistently nails her part and manages to evoke a few laughs in the process, so Small Time Crooks does manage to boast her Golden Globe nominated performance as one of its best assets.

And speaking of actors that are interesting to be active again, the famous comedian Elaine May manages to make her latest contribution to cinema in any form whatsoever with her performance in Small Time Crooks. She captures a lot of the stereotypical nebbish elements of Woody Allen's usual character with a slight touch of her own natural comedic charisma which makes everything more humourous and entertaining. She and Woody Allen share a fairly hilarious chemistry in Small Time Crooks because it is as if they were talking to themselves and yet they are not. Elaine May steals the screen when she is on it in Small Time Crooks because Woody Allen's material proves itself to be just right for her, and her ability to conjure up a successful comedy chemistry with the surrounding cast members proves to enhance the entertainment value of Small Time Crooks as a whole.

But despite the talents of its cast and an easy script, Small Time Crooks defies its potential and ends up playing it safe with basic comedic material which is short on laughs or originality.