It's divided into three parts. (1) Woody and an inept gang set up a cookie store as a front, to be run by Woody's wife, Tracy Ullman, while they tunnel through the store's basement into the bank next door. (2) The robbery fails but the cookie store succeeds beyond anyone's imagination and Woody and Tracey become rich. (3) Tracey falls for a phony art dealer and Woody takes up with his sister-in-law, May, Elaine May. When the cookie franchise goes bankrupt the couple get together and it all ends happily.
The first part seems somewhat detached from the rest of the movie. Most of the main characters disappear from the film in the two later sections. It's almost a film in itself. And actually I think it just about was -- called "Larceny, Inc." back in the 1940s.
Part two is transitional and is the most nearly serious (and least amusing) part. Ullman wants to learn how to be classy from Hugh Jackman but is flatly unable to overcome her innate vulgarity. My God, her taste is awful. Woody is forced to wear clothes that are in themselves lessons of dissonance -- a royal blue jacket with canary yellow trousers. He refuses to look at a wall on which an abstract expressionless painting hangs and has the butler read him the time from the clock hanging next to the dreadful thing.
The third part revolves around Woody's plan to switch a cheap fake for a terminally expensive necklace at a fancy party. The plot is silly but Elaine May carries the day as a complete dodo. Some of the gags are simple minded and others a little more complex. I'll give an example of an exchange between May and a guest at the formal party that illustrates both kinds of jokes. May has been ordered by Woody to keep quiet and play lookout and to say nothing except maybe about the weather. Something like this.
May: "There's a warm front moving over the city." Guest: "You know, you're the most charming woman I've met since my dear, departed wife. I noticed you when you first entered the room, the way you carried yourself." May: "You can't carry yourself. That's physically impossible." Guest, laughing: "Really, you remind me so much of Helen." May: "Who's Helen? Was she your wife or just some woman who died?" Later May tells Woody: "He said I reminded him of his dead wife. I assume he meant while she was still alive." There's still another reference to this exchange but I think I'll quit.
This is one of Woody's better recent comedies. He's the nervous street-wise schlub that he was in "Broadway Danny Rose." If you liked that one, you ought to enjoy this one.
The first part seems somewhat detached from the rest of the movie. Most of the main characters disappear from the film in the two later sections. It's almost a film in itself. And actually I think it just about was -- called "Larceny, Inc." back in the 1940s.
Part two is transitional and is the most nearly serious (and least amusing) part. Ullman wants to learn how to be classy from Hugh Jackman but is flatly unable to overcome her innate vulgarity. My God, her taste is awful. Woody is forced to wear clothes that are in themselves lessons of dissonance -- a royal blue jacket with canary yellow trousers. He refuses to look at a wall on which an abstract expressionless painting hangs and has the butler read him the time from the clock hanging next to the dreadful thing.
The third part revolves around Woody's plan to switch a cheap fake for a terminally expensive necklace at a fancy party. The plot is silly but Elaine May carries the day as a complete dodo. Some of the gags are simple minded and others a little more complex. I'll give an example of an exchange between May and a guest at the formal party that illustrates both kinds of jokes. May has been ordered by Woody to keep quiet and play lookout and to say nothing except maybe about the weather. Something like this.
May: "There's a warm front moving over the city." Guest: "You know, you're the most charming woman I've met since my dear, departed wife. I noticed you when you first entered the room, the way you carried yourself." May: "You can't carry yourself. That's physically impossible." Guest, laughing: "Really, you remind me so much of Helen." May: "Who's Helen? Was she your wife or just some woman who died?" Later May tells Woody: "He said I reminded him of his dead wife. I assume he meant while she was still alive." There's still another reference to this exchange but I think I'll quit.
This is one of Woody's better recent comedies. He's the nervous street-wise schlub that he was in "Broadway Danny Rose." If you liked that one, you ought to enjoy this one.