It's the middle of winter in Wisconsin. Mickey Prohaska (Greg Kinnear) is an unscrupulous well-dressed insurance salesman. There is no such thing as over-insured. His wife Jo Ann (Lea Thompson) had kicked him out of the house. He befriends new salesman Bob Egan (David Harbour) who introduces him to prospective client in absent-minded farmer Gorvy Hauer (Alan Arkin). Leonard Dahl (Bob Balaban) from Chicago is looking to buy Gorvy's rare old violin worth $25k. With mounting money troubles, Mickey tries to scam the violin from Gorvy. The situation gets more complicated as Gorvy hires Randy Kinney (Billy Crudup) to install a security system.

When Dahl enters the movie, I assumed this to be an elaborate scam by everybody against Mickey although the value of the violin needs to be higher. I wouldn't mind that movie but Billy Crudup changes everything. He turns it into something different. There is an issue with Mickey's extremely flawed plan. It would be discovered relatively quickly and he would be a prime suspect. Even without the flaw, Mickey is no one to root for. It makes his troubles rather comical and lacking in interest. I don't think I care what happens to Mickey and I hope Randy gets real crazy on his head.

Mickey Prohaska (Greg Kinnear) is a Wisconsin insurance agent and motivational speaker who is down on his luck. His main problem is that he lacks integrity. This gets him in trouble as "you can't cheat an honest man." His wife (Lea Thompson) has given him the boot. Mickey has a scheme to rob an unsuspecting retired farmer (Alan Arkin) of a valuable violin he has laying around the house. Unfortunately Mickey needs the help of an unscrupulous psychotic home alarm installer (Billy Crudup) to pull the caper off. Things don't go as planned...

One of the problems of this film is that it has similarities to "Fargo." I kept making comparisons in my mind and discovered Greg Kinnear is no William H. Macy; Billy Crudup is no Steve Buscemi. In spite of that, the film is worth watching for its own merits. The plot starts out plausible and slowly inches its way toward the bizarre. The film made clever use of dialogue and the violin soundtrack. The film is better if you can watch it without thinking about "Fargo." Sorry I mentioned it.

Good comedy crime drama.

Parental Guide: F-bomb, near oral sex, no nudity.

This is a flawed but still watchable film that seems to steal characters and plot from the Coen Brothers' Fargo, yet manages to succeed. At least to an extent.

The problem may be - as we were told at our cinema previewing club - that the director lost final cut here, and found herself with a movie she no longer can even comment on, with 15 minutes cut, the film re-edited, and a score she never intended - and one that doesn't work well.

The result is a somewhat uneven, too dark black comedy. Or is it a drama? Or perhaps a "caper" movie? I'm not quite sure.

When it comes to the acting, though, this is a great film. Greg Kinnear plays a character too reminiscent of Wm. H. Macy's turn in Fargo, but he makes the most of it, though - team player that he is - he's outshone by more spectacular performances. Alan Arkin, for one, who also did it to Kinnear in Little Miss Sunshine. But the "steal the show" performance is by Billy Crudup, always sexy (my wife says he's "hot") and interesting to watch, and here at his very best. Bob Balaban is spot on as a violin dealer, and the rest of the cast is excellent.

Worth seeing for many, but mostly for those performances.