GREEDY PEOPLE (2024)

Genre: Crime/Comedy
Director: Potsy Ponciroli
Cast: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tim Blake Nelson, Uzo Aduba, Simon Rex, Nina Arianda, Jim Gaffigan, Joey Lauren Adams, José María Yazpik
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scene)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 10 October 2024

Synopsis: When the eclectic residents of a small, picturesque island town must navigate a sensational murder and the discovery of a million dollars, a series of increasingly bad decisions upend the once peaceful community. 

Movie Review:

Director Potsy Ponciroli and writer Mike Vukadinovich’s Greedy People is marketed as sort of a Coen brothers’ dark comedy. It has the characters, the premise and the motive. Still it lacks a certain spark to make it a memorable effort.

Will Shelley (Himesh Patel) has just relocated to a seaside town with his pregnant wife, Paige (Lily James). Working as a local cop, he’s paired up with an uncouth partner Terry Brogan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). On his first day on the job, Will accidentally kills the wife of a local seafood entrepreneur, Wallace (Tim Blake Nelson). Terry suggests they staged the crime scene as a break-in and takes the million dollars that is lying on the floor.

Things it seem is not that simple after all. In fact, Wallace has earlier engaged the service of a hitman dubbed the Columbian to kill his wife and the money is meant for him. Apparently, no one is that decent in this small town and that includes Paige who harbours her own intention on what to do with the dirty loot.

We can’t deny the first half of Greedy People is ridiculously fun and absurd. Terry having a quickie during office hours with a married Chinese woman, watching the two cops fumbling over the crime scene. So far so good. The narrative is decent enough and it makes you curious as to what these two goons are going to do next. Hide the money and blame the crime onto Wallace who is also having an affair with his secretary before things go out of control? Maybe but maybe not.

Yet the goofy comedy elements are hampered by half a dozen characters coming to play. Let’s see. In addition to the Columbian, there’s a himbo masseuse (Simon Rex) and another low-rent hitman dubbed The Irishman (Jim Gaffigan) thrown into the frenzy. Ultimately, the only decent person in the whole movie is the town’s police chief, Murphy (Uzo Aduba).

If the first half of the movie is a comedy then the second half is well, dark. The situation soon turns unexpectedly unhinged. We are not going to spoil it for you but the onscreen nastiness might be a shock to you consider the light-hearted first half. Still, we did enjoyed the darker aspects of it despite the shift in tone. At least the filmmakers stayed true to the title. Greed after all is a dangerous thing. A couple of wrong decisions can lead to something far more deadly than you can imagined and that’s what happened to Will, Terry and Paige in the end.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt continues to be a shining beacon onscreen. He is clearly having fun playing the “bad” guy and he easily outshone his co-star Himesh Patel who is sort of muted even it marks his second pairing with Lily James after Yesterday. Honestly, Greedy People did has its fair amount of flaws with the crime and comedy elements mostly lopsided. Yet it’s overall a genuinely enjoyable effort.

Movie Rating:

(A crime dark comedy that comes much darker than expected)

Review by Linus Tee