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Welcome To Collinwood - 10/19/02 - R - 86m
William H Macy
Sam Rockwell
Michael Jeter
Director: Anthony and Joe Russo
JEF
Overall I enjoyed this movie and laughed many times, but the
story has been done before, and it is short, with a running time of only
86 minutes.
The opening scene should make you smile. Just this one shot, which is
almost like a snapshot photo, is enough to set the scene for this quirky
movie.
We’re introduced to some whacky characters right from the start.
I won’t go too far in describing this movie because most of the
movie is about the characters themselves. To sum it up briefly, Cosimo
(Luis Guzemán) is arrested for grand theft auto. While in the jail
he gets a tip from a "lifer" about a job. The movie also has
it’s own lingo which adds more charm to it… for example, this
job that is supposed to be the perfect, easy crime, is called the "Bellino".
So Cosimo has his Bellino. He then tells his girlfriend, Rosalind (Patricia
Clarkson) and she starts to try and find a person to take the fall for
Cosimo’s car theft. For $15,000 this person will confess to stealing
the car and then Cosimo can go free to persue the perfect job. At this
point is where we’re introduced to several characters who all have
their unique personalities. Michael Jeter plays Toto (who is great) (Jeter
is best known for his roll in "The Green Mile"). William H.
Macy (Fargo) Plays a small time crook with a baby, and Pero (Sam Rockwell,
also from "The Green Mile") is a not so good boxer. Pero tends
to play the lead in this movie. There is a small roll by George Clooney.
Some have made references of this movie to "O Brother Where Art Thou"…
which there are some similarities but in storyline they are nothing alike.
A mark against this movie is for it’s lack of originality. It’s
another bumbling crook movie, which I happen to like. It’s a lot
like a Mafia gangster movie… you might have seen movies like this
before, but it’s the telling of the story and the different characters
and actors that separate the movies.
There was one scene in particular that had myself and two other people
in the theatre in hysterics.
Now… I’d like to bring up the George Clooney ties… George,
was the executive producer on this movie. He’s one of 7 other producers
including Steve Soderbergh. The cast of this movie has all sorts of connections
to George Clooney. It’s obvious this was his baby, and he called
upon his friends in the Biz to help him out on this. Soderbergh worked
on Oceans 11 and "Out of Sight". Luis was in "Out of Sight".
Isiah Washington was also in "Out of Sight". Michael Jeter,
Sam Rockwell, Patricia Clarkson (Rosalind) were all in "The Green
Mile". (There is a good chance that this was Soderbergh’s "baby"
and he brought in Clooney?).
Well to sum it up… If you like Bumbling, whacky small time crook
movies, you’ll like this one.
Jef