This is an amiable and quite conventional comedy. The biggest problem is that it’s not all that funny. The whole movie, with its rather antiquated notions of the lower classes, feels as if it were inspired by another era. This may be Allen’s attempt to pay homage to his idol Bob Hope. You can feel Hope’s influence in Woody’s unusually physical performance. “Small Time Crooks,” his first movie for DreamWorks, gives off a slight scent of mothballs.
Still, considering that the basic joke is how dumb and uncultured its characters are, the comedy is surprisingly benign. It could have reeked of condescension (as “Mighty Aphrodite” often did). Ullman, who can underplay even the most broadly written part, magically invests this paragon of bad taste with a no-nonsense humanity that rescues her from stereotype. And as the dumbest character of them all, Frenchy’s cousin May, Elaine May makes total stupidity totally irresistible. When she’s around, this tepid jest is laugh-out-loud funny.
Small Time CrookDreamWorks Opens May 19
