Small Time Crooks

Infobox_Film
name = Small Time Crooks


caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Woody Allen
writer = Woody Allen
starring = Woody Allen,
Tracey Ullman,
Elaine May,
Hugh Grant
producer = Jean Doumanian
editing = Alisa Lepselter
distributor= DreamWorks Pictures (USA)
FilmFour (UK)
budget = ~ US$18,000,000
released = 19 May 2000
runtime = 94 min.
country = United States
language = English
imdb_id = 0196216
amg_id = 1:187116|

"Small Time Crooks" is an American comedy film, released in 2000, starring Woody Allen and Tracey Ullman. Allen also wrote and directed the film.

Characters

The main characters include:
*Ray — (played by Woody Allen) An ex-con with an elaborate scheme to rob a bank.
*Frenchy — (played by Tracey Ullman) Ray's wife.
*Denny, Tommy, and Benny — (played by Michael Rapaport, Tony Darrow, and Jon Lovitz, respectively) Ray's partners in the bank robbing scheme.

Plot

Ray and his friends want to lease an old restaurant so they can tunnel from the basement of the restaurant to a nearby bank. Frenchy covers what they are doing by selling cookies from the restaurant. The bank robbery scheme is a miserable failure, but after they franchise the business, selling cookies makes them millionaires.

In the film's second act, Frenchy throws a big party and overhears people making fun of their decorating taste and lack of culture. She asks a man named David (Hugh Grant) to train her and Ray so they can fit in with the American upper class. Ray hates every minute of it, but Frenchy likes their new culture.

What Ray and Frenchy don't know is that David is really just using Frenchy to get money for art projects he wants to do. Ray finally gets fed up and leaves Frenchy. David and Frenchy go to Europe for more cultural enlightenment and while there, she gets a call and finds out she's been defrauded by her accountants. She's lost everything including her cookie company, home, and possessions. David immediately dumps her.

Meanwhile, Ray has gone back to being a crook and tries to steal a valuable necklace at a party. He has had a duplicate made and through a series of circumstances gets the duplicate and real one mixed up. At the party he finds out that Frenchy is broke so he leaves and goes to see her. He consoles her by saying he stole the valuable necklace and shows it to her. Her new cultural enlightenment enabled her to tell the necklace was a fake. Ray had gotten the wrong one. But, she produced a cigarette case that she had given to David as a gift and stole back from him when he dumped her. It once belonged to the Duke of Windsor. They reconcile and decide to sell it and go together to Florida.

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film received 66% positive reviews, based on 96 reviews. [cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/small_time_crooks/ |title=Small Time Crooks - Movie Reviews, Trailers, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes |accessdate=2008-02-15 |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 69 out of 100, based on 32 reviews. [cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/smalltimecrooks |title=Small Time Crooks (2000): Reviews |accessdate=2008-02-15 |publisher=Metacritic]

Ullman was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical for her performance and Elaine May won Best Supporting Actress at the National Society of Film Critics Awards for her performance.

"Small Time Crooks" was the highest grossing film directed by Allen at the North American box office between 1989's "Crimes and Misdemeanors" and 2005's "Match Point" with a gross of $17.2 million. However it was also one of the few later Allen films which did less well outside the U.S. and Canada, and its global gross was $29.9 million. [cite web|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=smalltimecrooks.htm |title=Small Time Crooks (2000) |accessdate=2008-02-15 |publisher=Box Office Mojo]

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0196216|title=Small Time Crooks
*amg movie|id=1:187116|title=Small Time Crooks
*rotten-tomatoes|id=small_time_crooks|title=Small Time Crooks
*metacritic film|id=smalltimecrooks|title=Small Time Crooks
*mojo title|id=smalltimecrooks|title=Small Time Crooks