Welcome To Colinwood

Another week, another quirky Coens-ish comedy from Section 8, the production company run by George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh. Still, when the output is as endearing as Welcome To Colinwood, no-one is likely to complain.

Essentially an antidote to the slick, glossy screen criminality of Ocean’s Eleven, Colinwood’s band of thieves couldn’t make crime pay if they were left alone in the Louvre with a set of keys and a Ferrari as a getaway vehicle. Basically, think off-beat, hapless crime-flicks like Palookaville, but a zillion times better.

Set in a decidely un-salubrious Cleveland suburb, the film sees local bully Cosimo (Guzman) come up with a predictably foolish foolproof plan, only for girlfriend Patricia Clarkson to put together the most hopelessly inept crew ever assembled in the name of larceny.

There’s Isaiah Washington, who struts around in a thoroughly conspicuous zoot suit; Sam Rockwell, a would-be Romeo (Sample chat up line – “No, let’s go to your place. Mine’s being deloused”.) and a boxer so spectacularly untalented, he probably couldn’t go two rounds with a kangaroo and survive. Meanwhile, George Clooney is a self-styled criminal ‘mastermind’ and William H. Macy is a put upon, dog-earred single parent unable to even guarantee the services of a baby-sitter for the duration of their upcoming caper.

Naturally, things go wrong – not that they were ever right to begin with – and the big, fantasy pay-off looks increasingly elusive. Still, this is a fun bunch of idiots to be around, and their charm holds, even if their luck doesn’t.