‘Greedy People’ Review: Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Coens-Lite Thriller Strains for Dark Laughs

“Don’t kill anybody unless you have to,” a rookie cop is told on his first day on the job in Greedy People. Not long afterward, he accidentally does just that, setting off a spiral of lethal events that give the the darkly comic thriller an impressive body count. Unfortunately, the proceedings become increasingly tiresome the more the characters are killed off, with the result that despite an impressive cast, the film comes to feel like a Coen brothers rip-off.

Set on a small island town rather than the snowy Midwest, this Fargo-like tale includes a wide array of characters, nearly all of whom prove either gleefully immoral or just plain dumb. The convoluted plot is set in motion when the aforementioned cop, Will (Himesh Patel), responds to an emergency call and nearly shoots a woman (Traci Lords, giving you an idea of the film’s irreverence) simply going about her business in her kitchen. She becomes hysterical and attacks him, and in the ensuing scuffle she winds up dead.

Will’s partner Terry (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, relishing his character’s sleaziness) convinces him to cover his tracks and blame the killing on a burglar — especially after they discover $1 million in cash in the house, which they decide to keep. Then it turns out that the woman’s husband, a rich shrimp dealer (Tim Blake Nelson), had already hired a hit man to murder his wife so he would be free to marry his lover (Nina Arianda). Naturally, he suspects that he’s been double-crossed.

Eventually, seemingly everyone on the island gets ensnared in the plot, including a sleazy masseur (Simon Rex, Red Rocket) whose services include those of the sexual variety; Will’s heavily pregnant wife (Lily Collins, reuniting with her Yesterday co-star Patel), who becomes deeply suspicious of Terry after he “accidentally” runs over her beloved dog; another hired killer, “The Irishman,” (Jim Gaffigan, trying and failing to be menacing), who advertises his services on tear-off flyers promising, “The Last Handyman You’ll Ever Need”; and the no-nonsense chief of police (Uzo Aduba), who’s basically this film’s version of Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson.

Screenwriter Mike Vukadinovich (the Jim Carrey Showtime series Kidding, Rememory) works hard for a black comic vibe and sometimes succeeds, as when The Irishman comments about his profession, “Even the most unpleasant job can be done ethically.” But more often than not, you can feel the strain as the film clumsily attempts to blend graphically brutal violence with deadpan humor — one example being the title only being displayed onscreen more than 20 minutes in.

Director Potsy Ponciroli demonstrated real talent with his critically acclaimed Western Old Henry, but he’s not quite able to pull this one off. The film lacks the necessary brazen stylization to allow for the escalating absurdities (by the time the story reaches its conclusion, there are few survivors, which would seem a real deterrent when it comes to the island’s tourism) and plethora of unnecessary subplots.

Despite the hard-working efforts of its impressively game ensemble, Greedy People fails to fulfill its considerable ambitions. It lives up to its title by greedily attempting to have its comic cake and eat its violence, too.

Source: Hollywoodreporter