An affable if hardly remarkable heist comedy, Welcome to Collinwood is more reliant on the charisma of its wonderful actors than its underdeveloped screenplay and recycled slapstick antics. Following hot on the heels of his superb work in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Sam Rockwell supplies another excellent performance as Pero, an amateur boxer who gets wind of a 'Bellini' (the perfect crime). With a motley group of cons in tow, including Riley (Macy), Leon (Washington) and Toto (Jeter), Pero sets out to execute this heist. Yet what the Bellini doesn't cater for is anyone falling in love with one of the major parts of the plan, the beautiful Carmela (Eposito). Go on, have a guess what happens next!
With George Clooney turning up in a memorable cameo as a safecracker, there's no shortage of fine actors in Welcome to Collinwood. As eager as it is, the problem lies with the undernourished screenplay. Multifaceted yet disarmingly predictable, the events unfolding on screen never really capture the imagination. There are some nice moments, but for the most part, Welcome to Collinwood glides when, considering the talent, it should be soaring. Nevertheless this is light-hearted stuff and the actors are game enough when it comes to making fools of themselves. Which is always nice.
