Greedy People (2024) Himesh Patel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have been Bad Boys 

“And for what? For a little bit of money? There’s more to life than a little bit of money ya know.”

Despite the works of the Coen brothers spawning their own massively popular sub-genre of comedy crime caper shenanigans, nobody ever surmised the absurdity and the nonsensical allure of the genre quite like the quote from Marge Gunderson at the end of Fargo. It’s a short monologue that’s so beautifully simple, it’s become the blueprint for every filmmaker onwards who’s attempted to satirise the severe nature of crime and the self-seriousness of on-screen criminals. The shadow of the Coens hangs heavy over Greedy People as, despite being its own original story, it has a similarly quirky, oddball approach to bad people showing their true colours when it comes to a little bit of money.

Will (Himesh Patel), is a cop who’s starting his first day on the job after moving into a small coastal town with his heavily pregnant wife Paige (Lily James), making Greedy People the second pairing for Patel and James as a romantic couple after Danny Boyle’s Yesterday (could they be Britain’s Gosling/Stone combo?). Will gets saddled with a walking red flag of male insecurity and over-friendliness called Terry (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), as a partner. He shows Will the ropes of what it means to be a cop in this town, namely which stores give the police free coffee and donuts, and to stay in the car while Terry sneaks off with a married woman whose husband is at work. Things quickly take a ridiculous yet unsurprising turn when Will investigates what he believes is a home invasion in progress, and of course events escalate quickly when, all of a sudden, Will somehow accidentally kills the wife of the wealthiest man in town – fishing magnate Wallace (Tim Blake Nelson). Roll the title card.

The shenanigans continue from there as Will, Terry, and a host of other characters get way too deep into the mess. Greedy People has all the components to make a dark comedy of errors, but more often than not each scene fails to live up to the potential that’s clearly in view. The film boasts a brilliantly varied cast, with Uzo Aduba as an excellent anchor point amongst the chaos, and it’s no surprise that Tim Blake Nelson and the always hilarious Simon Rex (who’s currently Hollywood’s go-to guy to play perverts), excel in these goofy types of role. Unfortunately the players all seem to exist isolated from one another, and lack the seamless mixing and matching of different personalities that’s a key component in these kinds of ensemble pieces – which isn’t helped by the uneven distribution of depth shared between the characters.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt hogs the screen as the loud-mouthed, unself-aware, Mandarin-learning, rockstar on-the-side bad boy cop Terry – a character with so many little traits and quirks that it’s no wonder he gives his most scene-chewing performance since … I dunno, The Walk? Beyond being hilarious though, there’s a key scene where Terry has dinner at Will’s house so his wife Paige can suss out whether he’s trustworthy, and it moves seamlessly from comedy to starkly intimidating when she asks Terry what made him want to be a cop. Off the back of some crass, unfunny banter, Terry abruptly recalls at length a boy in high school who bullied him – a seemingly unrelated tangent that culminates in him revealing a horrific moment of violence he committed against the bully decades later once he became a cop. It’s a brilliant gear shift that effectively contextualises the film in the world of police violence, a move that’s entirely contingent on the strength of Gordon-Levitt’s performance. However, the nuance afforded to his character seems to come at the cost of those around him, for example Patel and James are playing more serious roles, but as a result they’re given very little to do in terms of character building. Both are extremely talented and likable performers so it almost feels unfair on them, and this one-note character writing affects nearly every other member of the cast.

Mike Vukadinovich’s screenplay goes to predictably unpredictable places from the inciting incident, but the plot itself has a similarly uneven feel to it as the characters. Its overlong runtime stretches out what should be a tight premise into something quite sluggish, especially in its middle act when the film feels like it’s in stasis. The final stretch leaves behind the comedy almost outright and moves to some surprisingly dark places given how light the story is to begin with. While that one scene with Gordon-Levitt is an effective shift in mood, the rest of the film fails to chain together its varied approaches to genre quite so well. It’s frustrating because Greedy People has the cast and a compellingly convoluted story to make this work, but something has been lost in translation. 

The film’s coda tries to have its Marge Gunderson moment about the nonsensical lengths a little bit of money pushes people to go, but there are too many unsatisfying aspects to the story that leave this supposed catharsis of reason feel cold and unearned. If anything Greedy People serves as an example of how difficult it is to maintain that precarious balance of humour, pathos, mystery and sheer thrills that make these sorts of farcical operas of incompetence tick.

Jake’s Archive – Greedy People (2024)