Welcome to Collinwood; Tragicomedy, USA, 2002; D: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, S: Sam Rockwell, Patricia Clarkson, Louis Guzman, William H. Macy, Isaiah Washington, Michael Jeter, Patricia Clarkson, Jennifer Esposito, George Clooney
The poor town of Collinwood. Small time crook Cosimo gets arrested while trying car theft, so he calls his wife to find someone who will for 15.000 $ admit the guilt for the crime for him. Boxer Pero is hired, but he is so unconvincing that he gets released, hearing about an unprotected safe. When Cosimo dies, Pero assembles a group of bums in order to rob the safe. In order to do so, he seduces Carmen to get the keyes for the room next door. But they fail miserably, the room explodes and they remain without anything.
For their feature length debut film, brothers-director Anthony and Joe Russo chose to remake the Italian comedy "I soliti ignoti" by Mario Monicelli, crime film "Welcome to Collinwood", that is not a failure, yet it joggles with drama and comedy in a convulsive and heavy handed way. By choosing poor and unemployed for the protagonists who intend to rob a safe, the story automatically chose an ambitious approach, the camera angles are nicely stylized, George Clooney has a solid small cameo whereas many scenes are rather clever constructed - for instance, when Pero hires two friends to harass a girl in order to heroically "save her" - yet the forced anxiety, depressing and grey mood in the end damaged to film more than they helped her.
Grade:+
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