From Jeremy Kibler

So much happens in director Potsy Ponciroli’s Greedy People that one almost forgets how it even began. In this darkly comedic crime farce of errors with a stacked ensemble, it does all begin with a police call gone wrong and an up-for-grabs stash of cash. It’s offbeat and mostly amusing, but the overly knotty crime plot just keeps shuffling around its quirky, bumbling small-town characters like pawns in body bags until it’s over.

Greedy People has the marks of a quintessential Coen Brothers picture, particularly Fargo, but it actually might fit in more with 2000s-era black comedies like Drowning Mona and The Ice Harvest. Not exactly a buddy-cop comedy, the film introduces us to a day in the life of two diametrically opposite cops. Officer Will Shelley (Himesh Patel) is new to the police force and to the small town of Providence, South Carolina, where he’s moved with his expectant wife, Paige (Lily James). During his first day on the job, he rides with cop Terry (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a raunchy wild card who knows all of the best spots for a free cup of coffee. While Terry has a morning delight with his married girlfriend, Will sits in the police cruiser until answering a burglary call but gets the code wrong, leading to the accidental death of a woman (Traci Lords). When Terry comes to the house, they happen upon a basket full of a million dollars. Of course, they take the money and try pinning the crime on someone else. More miscommunication and plot convolutions ensue.

The premise is simple—greed comes out in a bunch of characters when money is concerned—but the script by Mike Vukadinovich then keeps adding more complications, including other motives and perspectives from other characters (complete with chapters). They include the dead woman’s dim masseur/gigolo (Simon Rex); the dead woman’s husband, a shrimp company owner (Tim Blake Nelson), and his secretary sidepiece (Nina Arianda); a contract killer (Jim Gaffigan) known as The Irishman who leaves job listings on a tear-off flyer in a hardware store; and a Colombian hitman (José María Yazpik) who was actually hired by the husband to kill his wife. Through all of the cynical payoffs in the zigzagging crime plot is a Marge Gunderson-level moral center: a wonderful Uzo Aduba, as Will and Terry’s police captain Murphy, who’s still grieving the loss of her son. 

The entire cast is reliably solid and most of them get to bring inner lives to these colorful characters (even Joey Lauren Adams in a brief appearance as a pissed-off local). Himesh Patel gets to be an earnest and affable rookie, and he shares a nice chemistry with former Yesterday co-star Lily James, who’s always likable and refreshingly gets more to do than just be the pregnant stay-at-home wife. But it’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt, in rare lunatic mode as Officer Terry, whom you can’t take your eyes off. He’s an obnoxiously brash, charismatic idiot who’s never as smart as he thinks he is, and there’s a hint of danger and volatility that’s just compelling to watch (a dinner table scene at Will and Paige’s house is very tense).

Bouncing between morbid absurdity and straight crime violence takes a deft touch, or else each tone just cancels the other out. Instead, the film becomes too inconsistent within its tonal shifts, especially once the body count really piles up and won’t stop piling up, and doesn’t let you root for anyone for too long. With all of that said, there is still some wicked fun in watching how Greedy People unfolds. It’s just too bad the film itself gets greedy in not knowing when to quit.

Rating: 2.5/5

Greedy People is currently in select theaters & On Demand.

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