Sometimes being a critic can indeed be really fun. I mean granted we do see a LOT of crap, and sometimes we’ll see five or six (or ten) truly awful films in a one-two week span. As a friend said coming out “”Swept Away,”” “”Please stop these awful movies! I can’t take it anymore.”” But just when you think about taking a break and writing about something else; hell, at times covering Politics seems to be a better option. Shudder…You stumble upon an unknown, surprise gem.
A film that’s rough around the edges, but is so full of life, unique, and truly a joy to watch that it leaves a smile on your face for a few days. Well my friends “”Welcome to Collinwood”” is just such a filmCharacter actor and Paul Thomas Anderson alum Luis Guzman takes a rare “”lead”” role as petty thief Cosimo who hears about the perfect “”Bellini”” from a lifer. For those who don’t know a “”Bellini”” is the word every criminal in this small town of Collinwood gives to their dream heist. Cosimo wants so badly to pull this job, the only problem is, he’s in jail, so he has to find a “”Mullinski”” – someone to be the fall guy for him, so that he can get out of jail to pull this job.He asks his girlfriend, Rosalin (Patricia Clarkson) to go find his “”Mullinski,”” and of course during the search for the fall guy, the word spreads about the “”Mullinski”” and eventually everyone wants their cut or piece of the action. The eventual gang ends up being a rag tag bunch of bungling career criminals including: Riley (William H. Macy), Leon (Isaiah Washington), Leon, (Sam Rockwell), and Pero (Michael Jeter).Now usually I despise films that try to so hard to be “”hipster,”” that they invent words and phrases and do things just because it’s some screenwriter or director goes “”hey this is cool,”” and god knows this film has it’s share of people being “”quirky”” just because the plot calls for them to be “”quirky””, but somehow it didn’t bother me with this time, probably because the cast is so great together and that the chemistry is there. I have to go on record as saying that I love Sam Rockwell! He just totally immerses himself into the characters that he plays that I almost never recognize him in his films. In this one, he is hysterically funny as the over the top, yet bumbling ladies man who tricks Cosimo into giving away his Bellini. The film certainly has a low budget quality about it, but it is well shot, and the town of Collinwood seems almost “”otherworldly”” you are never quite sure where or even when this film takes place. At times you are thinking this is taking place in a run down Italian village, at other times it seems like its some place in America. You are never sure, and ultimately where Collinwood is doesn’t matter, what matters is the town itself is just a quirky (there’s that word again) run down place that seems to be full of petty thieves and criminals. Gabriella Union puts in an appearance and she looks almost too clean to be in this.The story is fun, the pacing is works, but the cast is what really makes this a film worth checking out, because hey deep down inside don’t we all crave a good “”Bellini”” and “”Mullinski””? Final Grade B+