Welcome to Collinwood
Encyclopedia
Welcome to Collinwood is a 2002 American crime
comedy film
about five small-time criminals, from the Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland, who try to organize one last big job
. The story is a remake of the 1958 Italian film I soliti ignoti
by Mario Monicelli
.
The film was written and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo.
) and Toto (Michael Jeter
) attempt to steal a car and Cosimo gets caught. In jail, he meets an old man who tells him about a Bellini - a perfect heist
-- which he cannot pull off because of his jail sentence. Cosimo wants his girlfriend/fiancée, Rosalind (Patricia Clarkson
), to find a "Mullinski" (a first time crook to take the fall for his crime of grand theft auto) so that he can get out of jail and pull off this Bellini. After talking to Toto, Basil (Andrew Davoli), Leon (Isaiah Washington
), and Pero (Sam Rockwell
) - and telling them the basics of the "Bellini" in the process - Pero is paid $16,000 to confess to Cosimo's crime. In jail, he gets Cosimo to tell him what the Bellini is, and then lets him know that his sentence was suspended so that he walks out a free man, leaving Cosimo to rot in jail. When he gets home, Pero is confronted by Cosimo's girlfriend, Rosalind, and some of the other people she asked to take the fall for Cosimo, including: Riley, whose wife is in jail and he to take care of his baby (or get $1000 to pay her fine), Leon, and Toto. Pero tells them he used the money to pay off his debts, but reveals the Bellini.
A brick building on Chester used to be a flour factory. Later it was converted, half into apartments and half into a jewelry store. The old man in jail was hired to work on the renovation. He created a small false wall between one of the apartments and the room with the jewelry store safe. Pero, Riley, Leon, Toto, and Rosalind all agree to go in on the heist together. Riley sold all of his camera equipment to buy baby supplies, but goes to a street market and steals a video camera so that they can record the owner opening the safe and get the combination. After many failed attempts to record the combination, they hire a safe cracker, Jerzy, to teach them how to crack the safe. The gang have to watch out for Sgt. Babitch, who is keeping a close eye on them. They are shocked to find that a pair of maiden aunts and a young woman named Carmela have moved into the vacant apartment. Leon and Basil pretend to accost Carmela and Pero comes to her "rescue." He gets a date with her and takes her to the street carnival. In the meantime, a guard watching over Cosimo suddenly falls down dead. Cosimo takes the guard's uniform and uses it to escape from jail. He confronts Pero in the funhouse at the carnival, and then the gang and a fight breaks out. Cosimo doesn't want to share the Bellini, and hits Rosalind for betraying him. They try to convince him that they can split the take equally, but Cosimo threatens to kill anyone who tries to pull off his heist. Rosalind leaves the group, no longer interested in the heist.
Pero finds that he is falling for Carmela. She reveals that the aunts will be out of town for several days. That same night Cosimo dies in a bus accident. Basil meets Leon's sister, Michelle, and they begin dating even though she's engaged; Michelle tells Basil that she wants an "honest man". Pero, having lied about the $16,000, gives it to Babitch to let them do the job. The night of the heist, Riley leaves his baby with Rosalind, but on his way to meet up at Pero's apartment he gets his arm broken by the men he stole the video camera from. His arm is in a cast and he's taken almost a bottleful of Vicodin (narcotic painkillers). Leon, having found out about Michelle and Basil, confronts him. Basil admits that he can't pull the heist because he got an honest job in order to be worthy of Michelle. He leaves. During the heist, everything that can go wrong, does. Riley is completely drugged, Toto loses his pants, Pero bites off the tip of his tongue, the janitor comes in to check on the apartment while the guys are there, and they realize that the floor plans they got were incorrect. They break through the wrong wall (into the kitchen) at 3am and realize there is not enough time to get it right and crack open the safe. Toto finds $1,000 in the cookie jar. While reheating dinner on the stove in the aunts' apartment, they accidentally blow up the stove. The end scene is the group after the explosion standing at the bus stop. Riley suggests that they shouldn't see one another again. As he is getting on the bus, Pero looks at Leon and Toto, and all agree to give Riley the $1000 to get his wife out of jail. Leon heads home to apologize to his sister and tells Pero to let him know when he gets another Bellini. As Pero leaves, Toto asks him about Carmela, and tells him that it's important to have someone to walk with, more so than money.
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
about five small-time criminals, from the Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland, who try to organize one last big job
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
. The story is a remake of the 1958 Italian film I soliti ignoti
Big Deal on Madonna Street
Big Deal on Madonna Street is a 1958 Italian criminal-comedy film, directed by Mario Monicelli, and considered to be among the masterpieces of Italian cinema. Its original title translates as "the usual unknown persons", a journalistic and bureaucratic euphemism for "unidentified criminals" or...
by Mario Monicelli
Mario Monicelli
Mario Monicelli was an Italian director and screenwriter and one of the masters of the Commedia all'Italiana , three times nominated for Oscar.-Biography:...
.
The film was written and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo.
Plot
Cosimo (Luis GuzmánLuis Guzmán
Luis Guzmán is an actor from Puerto Rico. He is known for his character work. For much of his career, he has played roles largely as sidekicks, thugs, or policemen....
) and Toto (Michael Jeter
Michael Jeter
Michael Jeter was an American actor.- Early life :Michael Jeter was born in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. His mother, Virginia , was a housewife...
) attempt to steal a car and Cosimo gets caught. In jail, he meets an old man who tells him about a Bellini - a perfect heist
Heist film
A heist film is a film that has an intricate plot woven around a group of people trying to steal something. Versions with dominant or prominent comic elements are often called caper movies. They could be described as the analogues of caper stories in film history...
-- which he cannot pull off because of his jail sentence. Cosimo wants his girlfriend/fiancée, Rosalind (Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Davies Clarkson is an American actress. After studying drama on the East Coast, Clarkson launched her acting career in 1985, and has worked steadily in both film and television. She twice won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in Six Feet Under...
), to find a "Mullinski" (a first time crook to take the fall for his crime of grand theft auto) so that he can get out of jail and pull off this Bellini. After talking to Toto, Basil (Andrew Davoli), Leon (Isaiah Washington
Isaiah Washington
Isaiah Washington IV is an American actor. A veteran of several Spike Lee films, Washington is best known for his role as Dr. Preston Burke on the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy from 2005 to 2007.-Personal life:...
), and Pero (Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell is an American actor known for his leading roles in Lawn Dogs, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Choke and Moon, as well as for his supporting roles in The Green Mile, Iron Man 2, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Frost/Nixon, Galaxy Quest, Matchstick Men, The Assassination of...
) - and telling them the basics of the "Bellini" in the process - Pero is paid $16,000 to confess to Cosimo's crime. In jail, he gets Cosimo to tell him what the Bellini is, and then lets him know that his sentence was suspended so that he walks out a free man, leaving Cosimo to rot in jail. When he gets home, Pero is confronted by Cosimo's girlfriend, Rosalind, and some of the other people she asked to take the fall for Cosimo, including: Riley, whose wife is in jail and he to take care of his baby (or get $1000 to pay her fine), Leon, and Toto. Pero tells them he used the money to pay off his debts, but reveals the Bellini.
A brick building on Chester used to be a flour factory. Later it was converted, half into apartments and half into a jewelry store. The old man in jail was hired to work on the renovation. He created a small false wall between one of the apartments and the room with the jewelry store safe. Pero, Riley, Leon, Toto, and Rosalind all agree to go in on the heist together. Riley sold all of his camera equipment to buy baby supplies, but goes to a street market and steals a video camera so that they can record the owner opening the safe and get the combination. After many failed attempts to record the combination, they hire a safe cracker, Jerzy, to teach them how to crack the safe. The gang have to watch out for Sgt. Babitch, who is keeping a close eye on them. They are shocked to find that a pair of maiden aunts and a young woman named Carmela have moved into the vacant apartment. Leon and Basil pretend to accost Carmela and Pero comes to her "rescue." He gets a date with her and takes her to the street carnival. In the meantime, a guard watching over Cosimo suddenly falls down dead. Cosimo takes the guard's uniform and uses it to escape from jail. He confronts Pero in the funhouse at the carnival, and then the gang and a fight breaks out. Cosimo doesn't want to share the Bellini, and hits Rosalind for betraying him. They try to convince him that they can split the take equally, but Cosimo threatens to kill anyone who tries to pull off his heist. Rosalind leaves the group, no longer interested in the heist.
Pero finds that he is falling for Carmela. She reveals that the aunts will be out of town for several days. That same night Cosimo dies in a bus accident. Basil meets Leon's sister, Michelle, and they begin dating even though she's engaged; Michelle tells Basil that she wants an "honest man". Pero, having lied about the $16,000, gives it to Babitch to let them do the job. The night of the heist, Riley leaves his baby with Rosalind, but on his way to meet up at Pero's apartment he gets his arm broken by the men he stole the video camera from. His arm is in a cast and he's taken almost a bottleful of Vicodin (narcotic painkillers). Leon, having found out about Michelle and Basil, confronts him. Basil admits that he can't pull the heist because he got an honest job in order to be worthy of Michelle. He leaves. During the heist, everything that can go wrong, does. Riley is completely drugged, Toto loses his pants, Pero bites off the tip of his tongue, the janitor comes in to check on the apartment while the guys are there, and they realize that the floor plans they got were incorrect. They break through the wrong wall (into the kitchen) at 3am and realize there is not enough time to get it right and crack open the safe. Toto finds $1,000 in the cookie jar. While reheating dinner on the stove in the aunts' apartment, they accidentally blow up the stove. The end scene is the group after the explosion standing at the bus stop. Riley suggests that they shouldn't see one another again. As he is getting on the bus, Pero looks at Leon and Toto, and all agree to give Riley the $1000 to get his wife out of jail. Leon heads home to apologize to his sister and tells Pero to let him know when he gets another Bellini. As Pero leaves, Toto asks him about Carmela, and tells him that it's important to have someone to walk with, more so than money.
Cast
- William H. MacyWilliam H. MacyWilliam Hall Macy, Jr. is an American actor and writer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo. He is also a teacher and director in theater, film and television. His film career has been built mostly on his appearances in small, independent films, though...
as Riley - Isaiah WashingtonIsaiah WashingtonIsaiah Washington IV is an American actor. A veteran of several Spike Lee films, Washington is best known for his role as Dr. Preston Burke on the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy from 2005 to 2007.-Personal life:...
as Leon - Sam RockwellSam RockwellSam Rockwell is an American actor known for his leading roles in Lawn Dogs, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Choke and Moon, as well as for his supporting roles in The Green Mile, Iron Man 2, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Frost/Nixon, Galaxy Quest, Matchstick Men, The Assassination of...
as Pero - Michael JeterMichael JeterMichael Jeter was an American actor.- Early life :Michael Jeter was born in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. His mother, Virginia , was a housewife...
as Toto - Luis GuzmánLuis GuzmánLuis Guzmán is an actor from Puerto Rico. He is known for his character work. For much of his career, he has played roles largely as sidekicks, thugs, or policemen....
as Cosimo - Patricia ClarksonPatricia ClarksonPatricia Davies Clarkson is an American actress. After studying drama on the East Coast, Clarkson launched her acting career in 1985, and has worked steadily in both film and television. She twice won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in Six Feet Under...
as Rosalind - Andrew Davoli as Basil
- George ClooneyGeorge ClooneyGeorge Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
as Jerzy - David WarshofskyDavid WarshofskyDavid Warshofsky is an American film and television actor.-Life and career:Warshofsky was born in Saratoga, California. There is some dispute about this. Other sources, some self-contradictory, have listed his place and date of birth as San Francisco in 1961 or 1959, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and...
as Babitch - Jennifer EspositoJennifer EspositoJennifer Esposito is an American actress, dancer and model, known for her appearances in films such as I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Summer of Sam and Crash and in television series such as Spin City, The Looney Tunes Show and Samantha Who?.-Early life:Esposito, an Italian-American, was...
as Carmela - Gabrielle UnionGabrielle UnionGabrielle Monique Union is an American actress and former model. Among her notable roles is as the cheerleader opposite Kirsten Dunst in the film Bring it On. Union starred opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the blockbuster film Bad Boys II and played a medical doctor in the CBS drama...
as Michelle - Michael Scott Costa Michael Jeter's Stunt Double and Stand-In
- Bill Piper George ClooneyGeorge ClooneyGeorge Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
's Stand-In
Terminology
- Mullinski: someone who takes the fall for a crime for someone else
- Bellini: a dream heist
- Krazner: a brick wall mortared with sand and water, making it easy to break
- Antwerp: A tool created to collapse a Krazner wall
- Kapuchnik: a heist gone so bad it is not salvageable