SMALL TIME CROOKS

Woody Allen movies are an acquired taste to most people, especially since the sordid revelations about his private life. In his newest one, SMALL TIME CROOKS, he returns to his roots of goofy screwball comedies, but adds a bickering but endearing romance between himself and British television comedienne Tracy Ullman.

In the story, the two comic actors play a married couple who bicker a lot but clearly still care for one another. Allen stars as Ray, a middle-aged ex-con who can’t hold a job. Ullman plays Ray’s wife Frenchy. When Ray hatches a scheme to tunnel into a bank vault, Frenchy reluctantly agrees to open up a cookie shop as a front for the tunneling. Her cookie recipes turn out to be far more successful than the bank heist, so they and their co-conspirators become millionaires when they open a cookie franchise business.

Frenchy has delusions of grandeur, however. She wants to become part of high society. To her dismay, she discovers that it takes education and refined tastes to accomplish that, two things which both she and Ray lack. Ray reluctantly agrees to hire a young aristocratic art collector, played by Hugh Grant, to educate them about art, wine, fine cuisine, and culture. When Ray shows even less interest in becoming a highbrow, the couple begins to break apart until some funny plot twists bring them back together.

SMALL TIME CROOKS is a rather amusing comedy that is much better than Allen’s recent movies, including such awful dogs as DECONSTRUCTING HARRY. Since the new movie mildly extols the value of married life and teaches that crime doesn’t really pay, it’s also one of Allen’s more moral works. Even so, Allen seems too old for the part, despite the inspired bits of his comic talent on display. SMALL TIME CROOKS also includes seven unnecessary strong profanities and a significant amount of other mild foul language, so it’s not quite a wholesome family movie. MOVIEGUIDE® urges caution, therefore.