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With: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Uzo Aduba, Tim Blake Nelson, Simon Rex, Jim Gaffigan, Nina Arianda, José María Yazpik, Neva Joan Howell, Traci Lords, Joey Lauren Adams, Yingling Zhu
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Written by: Mike Vukadinovich
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Directed by: Potsy Ponciroli
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MPAA Rating: R for violence, language throughout and sexual content
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Running Time: 113
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Date: 08/23/2024
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Crime-a-Dozen
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Starting off great guns, Potsy Ponciroli's crime-comedy Greedy People drops wild, zany jokes, and brutal surprises with razor pacing, but it eventually succumbs to a grim seriousness and a plodding final stretch.
Will (Himesh Patel) and Paige (Lily James) move to the sleepy island town of Providence to start a new life. Paige is pregnant and Will has landed a job as police officer. He meets his captain, Murphy (Uzo Aduba), and his new partner, Terry (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Terry shows Will the ropes, i.e. where to get free coffee and such. While Terry is taking a break with a lady friend, Will gets a call that he interprets as an armed intruder. Responding alone, he causes the accidental death of Virginia (Traci Lords), wife of wealthy fish vendor Wallace Chetlo (Tim Blake Nelson).
Terry arrives and they stumble upon an enormous pile of cash. They agree to make the accident look like a robbery and take the money. As the tangled investigation gets under way, it turns out that there are other parties involved, including a clueless masseuse, Keith (Simon Rex), and two competing contract killers known as The Irishman (Jim Gaffigan) and The Colombian (José María Yazpik).
Greedy People opens well with UK actors Patel and James (reuniting after their pairing in Yesterday) playing the perfect American small-town, aw-shucks couple, just a couple of good people trying for a good life. The small island town is painted in beautiful strokes, including Paige's visit to the hardware store, run by a beef-jerky-obsessed manager. ("Not a lot of people move here," one character says.) And Gordon-Levitt chomps ravenously into his character, zipping through his lines with rapid-fire energy, and filling them with a kind of subtle bitterness, a frustration about being maybe not good enough or not smart enough.
But then the movie settles down to the business of being one of those Elmore Leonard-like crime comedies, with a whole bunch of characters all trying to backstab each other, all trying to get their hands on the sack of money, and all trying to kill each other. It's not a bad story, but it's more familiar than it is surprising, and once Greedy People forgets to be funny, it loses its power.
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