Woody Allen
Criminali da strapazzo

Film of 2000, directed and interpreted by Woody Allen. The cast includes Tracey Ullman (as the wife), Hugh Grant (as the art dealer and life coach) John Lovitz (as a pyromaniac thug). In short, the ex-con Allen, a dishwasher, decides to rob a bank by reaching the vault through an underground tunnel. He rents a place near the bank and hires three shady characters to carry out the plan. Meanwhile, his skillful wife improvises in the store a cover-up for the criminals and ends up paradoxically achieving unexpected success (her skill in making cookies will attract many customers as well as media attention). Allen and his wife become wealthy. The woman has the desire (and opportunity) to become part of a world that does not belong to her, not shared by the husband who does not deny himself (keeping away from certain social events), even though he has become wealthy. The cookie business will be mismanaged, and the two will quickly find themselves penniless once again. While for Tracey Ullman, it will be a huge shock, the ex-dishwasher Allen will show he can recover "art and part" without too much trauma.

It's a funny comedy and the good American director does not fail to reveal some current themes to us through the tragicomic key so dear to him, with several characters that are at times cartoonish. A classic story of rise and fall, which allows for a comic look at different social classes. The wife's (Ullman) ambitions are quite valid but also superficial: her desire for education and her hunger to be someone, to belong to what seems to be the most important part of society will turn out to be a flop. The clash-non-encounter of classes is a theme with a Marxian flavor. Allen describes with sarcasm the world of the newly wealthy Americans, but does not fail to reveal the baseness (or the slickness) of the "important" social class. Culture, elegance, and refined manners are a mask for hypocrisy and opportunism (see Hugh Grant). The level of acting is of great quality and Tracey Ullman really moves wonderfully in this character. The perfectly apt and intentionally paradoxical sets by the loyal Santo Loquasto are of great taste, designing a true triumph of the gaudy in the newly rich couple's mansion.

Allen is not in exceptional form but continues, after the good critical success of "Sweet and Lowdown" to produce pleasant and intelligent films. As in the following films ("The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" and "Anything Else") he will focus heavily on the characterization of a grotesque character (avoiding the typical anxious Allenian hysteria).