Dir. Anthony & Joe Russo, US, 2002, 86mins
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Isaiah Washington, George Clooney, Michael Jeter, William H. Macy
Review by Gavin Bush
Bungling criminals are perennial comic fare in Hollywood. Taking influence from Woody Allen’s Small Time Crooks among others, Welcome to Collinwood breaks no new ground, but thanks to an impressive cast it is genuinely funny. For their debut feature co-writer/directors Anthony and Joe Russo chose the rundown Collinwood district of their hometown Cleveland to give an archaic and timeless setting to the film. Their career is the stuff of dreams with Steven Soderbergh giving them a big break after seeing their student film Pieces. Section Eight, the production company he runs with George Clooney offered to produce their next picture. Even with Clooney on board the budget was a modest $8 million. This didn’t leave much room for the cast; everyone had to take a cut and Clooney ended up the lowest paid person on the production.
The film starts with some welcome screen time for Luis Guzmán playing petty criminal Cosimo who gets caught whilst clumsily trying to steal a car. In prison his lifer cellmate gives him the plan for a perfect crime, a failsafe job, what the local crooks refer to as a ‘Bellini’. Cosimo now needs someone to take his place in jail, a ‘Mullinksi’ whom he will pay $15,000 to own up to the crime and take his place. Rosalind, Cosimo’s girlfriend, is given the job of finding a patsy. Nobody wants to do the time for Cosimo, but they all become interested in a share of the spoils. Soon an unlikely alliance is formed led by hopeless boxer Pero (Sam Rockwell), who manages to dupe Cosimo into telling him the Bellini. He is joined by failing photographer Riley (William H.Macy), camp hustler Leon (Isaiah Washington), handsome Italian gigolo Basil (Andrew Davoli) and tramp like thief Toto (Michael Jeter). The crime is technically out of their scope, so they enlist wheelchair-bound safecracker Jerzy (George Clooney) to instruct them.
Needless to say things soon start to go wrong. There are some great one-liners, but at times the pace becomes slack. Jennifer Esposito and Gabrielle Union play the pretty girls in two romantic subplots, but these really just act as padding, providing unnecessary character depth and motivation. Rockwell is rather pedestrian compared to his recent performance in the excellent Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, but a tattoo clad Clooney like his spoony CIA agent in the same film sparkles, and is clearly having a lot of fun with the larger than life Jerzy. William H.Macy is exemplary as always playing single parent Riley who is desperate for a cut to bail out his wife from prison, but like the other characters is an accident waiting to happen. Isaiah Washington is the weak link here, playing off key with his character Leon, and sometimes crossing from comic to ham acting. Michael Jeter, more familiar for playing with his mouse Mr.Jingles in The Green Mile, quietly steals scenes playing the ageing and feeble Toto straight. Whatever backing the Russo brothers can get for future projects, they may never work with a better cast. This will force them to rely more heavily on their writing and directing skills, and could well lead to better movie making.
