Small Time Crooks

Small Time Crooks
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Woody Allen
Produced by	Brian Grazer Claude Berri Claude Zidi Gary Levinsohn Ivan Reitman Jean Doumanian John Davis Lawrence Gordon Lloyd Levin Mark Gordon Pierre Grunstein Robert F. Colesberry Ron Howard Thomas Langmann
Screenplay by	Ethan Coen Joel Coen Woody Allen
Based on	Small Time Crooks: The Crazy Adventures of Ray and his Friends by Ethan Coen Joel Coen
Starring	Woody Allen Tracey Ullman Elaine May Hugh Grant
Music by	Carter Burwell James Horner
Cinematography	Zhao Fei
Editing by	Alisa Lepselter
Studio	Davis Entertainment FilmFour Imagine Entertainment Katharina Renn Prodctions]] Lawrence Gordon Productions Mutual Film Company Pathé The Montecito Picture Company
Distributed by	DreamWorks (North America) Pathé (France) United International Pictures (Europe except France) Universal Pictures (Worldwide)
Release date(s)	May 19, 2000 (2000-05-19)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$18 million
Box office	$29,934,477

Small Time Crooks is a 2000 American crime-comedy film directed, written, and starring Woody Allen, along with Tracey Ullman and Hugh Grant. It is based on the 1992 book Small Time Crooks: The Crazy Adventures of Ray and His Friends, written by the Coen Brothers.

Plot

Ray (Woody Allen) and his friends want to lease an old restaurant so they can tunnel from the basement of the restaurant to a nearby bank. Frenchy (Tracey Ullman) covers what they are doing by selling cookies from the restaurant. The bank robbery scheme is a miserable failure, but after they franchise the business, selling cookies makes them millionaires.

In the film's second act, Frenchy throws a big party and overhears people making fun of their decorating taste and lack of culture. She asks a man named David (Hugh Grant) to train her and Ray so they can fit in with the American upper class. Ray hates every minute of it, but Frenchy likes their new culture.

What Ray and Frenchy don't know is that David is really just using Frenchy to get money for art projects he wants to do. Ray finally gets fed up and leaves Frenchy. David and Frenchy go to Europe for more cultural enlightenment and while there, she gets a call and finds out she's been defrauded by her accountants. She's lost everything including her cookie company, home, and possessions. David immediately dumps her.

Meanwhile, Ray has gone back to being a crook and tries to steal a valuable necklace at a party. He has had a duplicate made and through a series of circumstances gets the duplicate and real one mixed up. At the party he finds out that Frenchy is broke so he leaves and goes to see her. He consoles her by saying he stole the valuable necklace and shows it to her. Her new-found cultural enlightenment enables her to tell the necklace was a fake; Ray has gotten the wrong one. But she produces a cigarette case that she has given to David as a gift and steals back when he dumps her. It once belonged to the Duke of Windsor. They reconcile, decide to sell it and go together to Florida.

Cast

• Woody Allen as Ray
• Tracey Ullman as Frenchy
• Elaine May as May
• Hugh Grant as David
• Michael Rapaport as Denny
• Tony Darrow as Tommy
• Jon Lovitz as Benny
• Elaine Stritch as Chi-Chi Potter

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film received 66% positive reviews, based on 96 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 69 out of 100, based on 32 reviews.

Ullman was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical for her performance and Elaine May won Best Supporting Actress at the National Society of Film Critics Awards for her performance.

Small Time Crooks was the highest grossing film directed by Allen at the North American box office between 1989's Crimes and Misdemeanors and 2005's Match Point with a gross of $17.2 million. However it was also one of the few later Allen films which did less well outside the U.S. and Canada, and its global gross was $29.9 million.

The film's plot is very similar to that of the 1942 comedy Larceny, Inc.. Allen has never commented on whether this was deliberate or if his film was in any way inspired by Larceny, Inc..

External links

• Small Time Crooks at the Internet Movie Database
• Small Time Crooks at AllRovi
• Small Time Crooks at Box Office Mojo
• Small Time Crooks at Rotten Tomatoes
• Small Time Crooks at Metacritic