There is a lot of the Coen Brother’s filmography, especially Fargo, nesting inside of Greedy People. What with the violence in a small town, quirky characters, dark humor, inept burglars, and folksy musical choices. But the film can’t quite pull off that perfect Coen mix to make it more than just mild entertainment.

The script is full of characters with odd-ball quirks, but it rarely seems to know what to do with them, or how to make them actual fleshed-out people. In a similar manner the story is full of interesting incidents – some violent, some funny – but it never merges into a cohesive whole. Still, it is quite entertaining and very enjoyable to watch.

Will Shelley (Himesh Patel) has just graduated from the police academy and has moved his very pregnant wife Paige (Lily James) to a small, island community off the coast of South Carolina. A place he hopes will be a peaceful place to raise a family.

His smart, and gentle boss Captain Murphy (Uzo Aduba) assigns Officer Terry Brogan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), affable, abrasive, and redneck to the core, to show Shelley the ropes. Brogan has a few rules every cop should live by. The first of which is “Don’t kill anybody unless you have to.” Because it gets “messy.” Also, you should get a hobby because this is a small town and the job is boring.

Mostly Brogan shows Shelley where to get free coffee and doughnuts. Then he decides to stop by his married girlfriend’s house for some afternoon delight, leaving Shelley to wait in the cruiser. When a call comes in for what Shelley believes is an in-progress burglary he honks the horn at Brogan and then heads to the scene without him.

To say things go bad would be an understatement. He accidentally discharges his weapon when the homeowner (Traci Lords) surprises him. When she defends herself the ensuing tussle finds her dead, having fallen on a table loging a piece of it into her skull.

Brogan shows up, and they both freak out, but when they find $1 million in cash inside a box, they come up with a plan. Make it look like a robbery gone bad and they can keep the money.

To say things only get worse from there would be yet another understatement.

It is all very Coen-esque. Like the Coens the film is not afraid to get real dark, but it is also quite funny and enjoyable to watch. But unlike the Coen Brothers movies, this doesn’t have a lot of depth to it. It feels too scripted.

For example, Brogan’s hobby is listening to CDs to learn Mandarin Chinese. He, very adeptly, says something in that language and when asked what it means he notes it means “I speak fluent Chinese.” He’s learning the language because his girlfriend is Chinese. A guy as dumb and redneck as Brogan is learning to speak fluent Chinese is funny and quirky, but I’m not sure how realistic it is.

So much of the movie is like this. Characters are given quirks which gives the film character, but it all feels scripted. You can feel the writing in it. The plot is similar. This woman accidentally gets killed on Shelley’s first day. There happens to be a million dollars lazily stashed in a basket. The dead lady’s husband (Tim Blake Nelson) just happened to have hired a hitman to kill his wife on the same day Shelly accidentally did the deed. There are apparently two competing hitmen on this small island and they are easy to contact. Etc. There are a lot of coincidences and oddities that are completely unrealistic.

Still, the performances are good. Gordon-Levitt is excellent at switching from goofball to menacing villain from one minute to the next. Lilly James isn’t given much for her character to do but she makes it her own. Etc.

Call it Coen Brothers-lite. Call it pretty good.