"Crackers" has to be one of the coolest and unusual films on Louis Malle extensive career, which goes from "Elevator to the Gallows" to "Vanya on 42th
Street" with masterpieces such as "Goodbye Children" and "Atlantic City". Here, he tells the story of a group of misfits who work or spend some time
to score some money on a pawnshop led by greedy Garvey (Jack Warden). They are poor and desperatly broke trying to do weird jobs or just going from scheme
to scheme until the wisest of them all Weslake (Donald Sutherland) invites to break into the safety vault from the place when Garvey's out visiting his mom. They are played by Sean Penn,
Larry Riley, Trinidad Silva and Wallace Shawn and they all play in a cool fashion as this bunch of low-life characters who might finally find their place in
the sun with lots of money or whatever is in the safe.
Some people see the movie as a social commentary on America's economical situation with this group of odd men trying to make it big with the score of the
century, where the poor take advantage of the wealthy one. I don't go that far because the movie plays it simple and safe as an adventure comedy, without
making any political statements. It's just humor of the best quality. Those guys have limited imagination, pros and cons but somehow they make it like
regular joes of whom we feel empathy and we like them in the way they are. Wheter Sutherland plays the smart lead, Penn plays the charming dude who wants to
date Ramon's sister; and Shawn doesn't talk much but only keeps thinking on how to score some free food, they're all interesting and cool to see how they
conduct things until the highly expected robbery (which is hilarious, when they met several challenges on the way.
I loved their routines, the movie takes its time to develop and we have the opportunity to get to know all of them and other characters as well (like the police officer Maxine, funny role for
Christine Baranski), to live with them in that small town where they keep bumping on each other in several ways. "Crackers" has a fine sense of humor and goes as a near perfect comedy, a
terrain Mr. Malle hardly ever explored. It was a different experience for him, who at first thought he was the wrong man for the job but in the end he came to
enjoy the experience. It's an enjoyable movie and one that entertains a lot, undeserving of its low ratings and low audience viewers. Criminally underrated.
And it's another case of a movie that is so good, with many great characters that I could imagine it as being a TV series. I'd certainly watch that. 9/10.
