Every so often, and a lot less often than he used to, Woody Allen makes a movie for the masses. "Small Time Crooks" is such a picture. Free of the angst and stylization of many of Allen's recent films, it's a cheerfully silly caper comedy that mixes in a little of "My Fair Lady" and a lot of "The Honeymooners" as it breezes along.
There's quite a bit of Ralph and Alice Kramden in Ray and Frenchy Winkler, the couple at the center of "Crooks," and Allen and Tracey Ullman spar and slander each other with an almost maniacal glee. Ray is an ex-con who dreams of one last heist; Frenchy, a former stripper (!) turned hard-bitten manicurist would rather play it safe. When Ray accuses her of always shooting down his dreams, Frenchy snarls, "You get the kind of dreams people get after they put opium in their brownies."
But eventually she's persuaded to participate in Ray's latest scheme, which involves opening a cookie shop as a cover for a crime. While Ray and his cronies try to tunnel from the basement of the shop into a nearby bank, Frenchy whips up batch after batch of her unusual taste treats (Chicken Chip and Tuna Mint are a couple of her flavors). The scheme goes awry when the cookies become, quite unexpectedly, the latest culinary craze. So Ray and Frenchy find themselves in the money, although not in the way they anticipated.
Getting refinement and culture is not so simple, even after Frenchy employs art dealer David (Hugh Grant) to teach her the basics of being a socialite. Soon she's memorizing the dictionary and using her new vocabulary all too well. "I must asseverate she deserves accolades," Frenchy tells her fellow concertgoers after seeing a cellist perform.
Allen essentially fades into the background and lets Ullman carry the picture. Good decision: She's magnificent here, whether making wisecracks in her best Brooklynese accent (of Ray's dopey friends she notes, "they never finished kindergarten because they got drafted") or flirting hopefully with the artsy crowd and wondering why they snicker at her leopard-print outfits and her apartment filled with gold-plated garbage. Allen's films are routinely scouted for Oscar-quality acting (last year's "Sweet and Lowdown" garnered nominations for Sean Penn and Samantha Morton) and hopefully Ullman's work will not be forgotten by the Academy.
The other standout performance here comes from veteran writer-director Elaine May as Frenchy's astonishingly simple-minded sister Mae, who has an uncanny knack for screwing up the simplest tasks. Mae's face is almost always slightly tense, as if Regis Philbin was just about to ask her the deciding question on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?", and May gives her a delightfully twisted voice that makes even throwaway lines sound like little jewels.
Allen fans shouldn't head for "Small Time Crooks" expecting the moral complexities of "Crimes and Misdemeanors" or the poignant soul-searching of "Another Woman." Those were seven-course meals while this is nothing more than a scrumptious dessert, one that should satisfy the appetite of anyone looking for laughs. James Sanford
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