Starring: Himesh Patel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lily James, Uzo Aduba, Tim Blake Nelson, Simon Rex, Jim Gaffigan, Joey Lauren Adams
Distributor: Kismet Unit Trust
Runtime: 112 mins. Reviewed in Oct 2024
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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Follows the residents of a small island town who must navigate a sensational murder and the discovery of a million dollars; a series of increasingly bad decisions upend the once peaceful community.
The title is absolutely correct. And, there is only one of the principal characters who is not greedy. This reviewer had read only the cast list before seeing the film but, about 15 minutes in, the title Fargo came to mind, thoughts about the Coen Brothers and their style of filmmaking. (And, then reading the comments and reviews, practically everybody thought of Fargo and the Coen Brothers).
Once you’re on the wavelength of Greedy People, there is no turning back. Screenplay, by Mike Vukadinovich, is cleverly funny, situations highly contrived but that is part of the enjoyment. And, gradual revelation of links between the various characters and their behaviour, the consequences of greed (and husband organising the murder of his wife also reminiscent of Fargo) becoming more humorously deadly as the film goes on. This is entertaining black humour.
At the opening, we are introduced to a sympathetic young policeman on his first day in a small town in Providence, Will (Patel). His wife Paige (James) is pregnant. And then he meets his partner, one of the brashest to the brash, Terry, played by a nonchalant Gordon-Levitt, a walking satire of verified self-importance.
Answering a police call, and misinterpreting it, Will becomes involved in a scenario that he could never have imagined. He calls Terry – and thus begins a series of choices that will lead to disaster, greed, violence and general mayhem which makes Greedy People interesting and funny.
There is a good supporting cast, especially Blake Nelson as the town’s fish baron. [Blake Nelson played the title character in the Ponciroli’s western, Old Henry.]
The town has an assortment of odd characters. An awkward masseur (Rex), under the domination of his religious mother. ‘The Irishman’, a philosophical but deadly hit man (Gaffigan), the Irishman’s Colombian counterpart who, apparently, has jurisdiction in the town for hits, the fish baron’s ambitious secretary and the good one, the police chief (Aduba).
So, with memories of the Coen Brother films, tantalising situations, ironic and satiric dialogue, audiences can sit back and enjoy the mayhem until the final macabre, laugh-out-loud image and a nice postscript, perhaps another tribute to the Coen’s, with Raising Arizona.
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