Palookaville

Alan Taylor, USA 1996, 92 mins

What sort of crooks would manage to make the elementary mistake of breaking into the wrong shop? Pretty inept ones, I guess you're thinking. But, even though the trio in this crime comedy manage to break into a bakery rather than a jewellers, their only crime is to be inept at life.

This is a delightful tale of how crime doesn't pay, and how it's really difficult to make it and do anything you like if you're not a mean hard guy with a baseball bat. Each of our three heroes has their own problems. One has a selfish cop as a brother in law, one only has dogs for company and the last one just manages to do absolutely everything wrong. And they're all stuck with no money, in a nowhere town, going absolutely nowhere but wanting to do something about it.

Now, as we all know crime is a slippery slope - one small crime leading onto other, more serious ones. When their bright idea of becoming criminals for fame and fortune starts to backfire the threesome start being drawn ever deeper into a web of criminal possibilities. Possibilities that they have neither the guts nor the ability to take - until a fateful event persuades them that they could actually pull off an armored truck robbery. Naturally, things don't go entirely to plan.

Producer Uberto Pasolini (the man behind The Full Monty) has gathered a cast made up of largely unknown actors, and has cast boldly against type for the main leads: these are people who normally play hardened criminals playing softies playing hardened criminals. The script is delightful in its twists and turns and all of the characters are likeable, even the unpleasant ones.

This really is a film that captures the spirit of classics like It's a Wonderful Life and The Hudsucker Proxy and it far outshines it's humble origins. A truly uplifiting and life-affirming film.

Neil Chue Hong and Mark Brown
EUFS Programme 1998-99