Fuera de la ley

It's probably a movie that well sail under the Grid of a lot of viewers, but it shouldn't be. It a fun and bold crime comedy that gets a little bit dark towards the end of it. It hangs on high branches as a vision and as an inspiration, but it manages to hold any expectations and pulls through a great, interesting, funny and compelling movie with same plot.

Its half mystery and half known. It has a classic format and movie template that is built on the foundation of one domino that is falling and causes the other to get their dance started. One event ignites a chin of hidden events that will reveal what ever needs to get up to the surface and grab you by the balls, to stay and watch the movie with a lot of interest.

It has a fine cast, that includes three main actors that has already built their name through the years and worth buying a ticket for the movie theatre. The one that is pulling the strings (Potsy Ponciroli) is less familiar but has his hands in some good Hollywood projects ("Old Henry", which was his first corporation with Tim Blake Nelson, before the current one).

Ponciroli is doing great work with the setting the paste of the movie and moves elegantly between the genres of comedy and drama until all is set to take the proper direction of thriller and seal the deal with it.

This movie is not perfect or even close to it. It imitates a lot of other the excelled in this genre, but is manages to surprise with its final result. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is stealing the show, as expected and the others are riding along properly, but no one is stealing the show from Ponciroli and his way of paying great tribute to other movies giants.

After watching Greedy People, it feels like the kind of film that made you believe there was more in store, from its pulpy premise. The keyword here is "made you believe." Unfortunately, the promise ends at being thoroughly engaging and not much else. You already know from Act One that none of the characters are likeable, trustworthy-and that would've been totally fine if it were only meant to be a harmless comedy. The film gets darker with each passing scene, and the humour basically transitions into a standard thrill-fest. Joseph Gordon-Levitt puts in a good show, and so does Lily James (did anyone else notice how she ate from the same spoon she fed her dog with?). The rest are functional, playing their respective roles without going overboard-it was still hard to buy into Himesh Patel as a cop.

I really wanted to believe there was more to one particular angle (revealing it would be spoiler-ish) about "respecting borders." That had the potential to really up the comedy quotient, yet it's not even explored. The ending also feels rushed (i.e. For a 1h 52m flick), with a resolution that just doesn't hold a lot of weight. There are a lot of coincidental happenings in the third act, making the plot threads easier to tie up sans emotional heft. A film like this needs the deep, character-driven approach (which it tries to some extent)-where one bad decision really wears down the leads. Not a bad film by any measure, though you'd wish there was better detailing to the key characters.

Police Officer Will Shelley (Himesh Patel) and his very pregnant wife Paige (Lily James) are new to an island community. It's Will's first day at work. He accidentally kills a housewife and finds a load of cash. His partner Officer Terry Brogan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) suggests stealing the cash and faking a robbery homicide.

I have a couple of issues with the money. First, real thieves would never leave the cash with another thief. Will should demand his share right away and hide it himself. Second and more confounding, I don't know how Paige got the cash to the hospital. Did no one ask what's in that plastic bag? It seems highly unlikely. This is nowhere Coen Brothers level, but there is still some good dark humor crime chaos.

This movie sneaked up on me and surprised me how much I enjoyed it. This is a tale about deception, greed and true human emotions and is very cleverly wrapped up in a Tarantino esq story which jumps back and forth in time to show the lead up to an event which is the back bone of the story. Its not so much a 'who dunnit' as its clear who has done what but the events which unravel around it keep you guessing with who and why. Not so much a comedy as it is a drama with some darkly humorous moments.

The cast is excellent. Im never a fan of casting English actors into roles which require thick American accents but Himesh Patel and Lily James do an admirable job. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the stand out performer portraying a slightly unhinged and chaotic character. Certainly a role I haven't seen him perform before.

There is enough going on here to keep you involved. A bunch of people chasing a bag of money and mayhem ensues. The only problem is they never dive deeply into any one character including the mains. Its hard to feel something for people you don't know.

At one point, I was cheering on the hit-men because they were way more interesting than the normies. None of the actors really had a chance to shine because the scenes were a bit chaotic and there was little substantive dialogue. The actress playing the secretary was good. I remember her from Billions and other films.

5 stars - you won't be bored but barely worth the time to type this up.