It’s time for a film about a bad influence trying to shake a kid that may or may not be his responsibility. Along the way there are a lot of comedic shenanigans and while the film is decent, I do think it could have been a lot better. It makes some story decisions that don’t seem to make a lot of sense to me but I suppose in that way you can say that I didn’t really predict what direction the story would go in.

The movie starts with a funeral occurring and a guy named Moses decides to take a look. He’s a bit of a travelling evangelist or that’s what he would have them think. In fact, he is a con artist who goes around finding anyone with a recently deceased family member and trying to force them into buying a Bible. He guilts them by making it seem like the dearly departed had already purchased this for the survivor. It’s a pretty terrible racket so this is clearly the villain in the story but the town asks him to take a little girl named Addie over to her surviving relative. In the meantime, everyone thinks Moses is secretly her father although he denies it. He figures he can drop Addie off almost immediately but she doesn’t want to go and decides to blackmail him. He will now have to incorporate her into the con, but can she really keep up?

At its core this is about a criminal teaching a little girl on how to be a criminal in her day. It’s more than a little unfortunate as he is teaching her how to be a bad person. This film is mainly a comedy so you shouldn’t take it too seriously but I would have still expected him to gradually be teaching her better and better habits as a person. She would become a good member of society or something. No, that doesn’t happen though. Even by the end her moral compass is really warped and she is ready to be a criminal. He doesn’t even stop her from all the smoking she does as a kid which is definitely a bit much. Her lungs are going to really be in poor shape. Those scenes tend to be a little more concerning than funny.

In general I think this film would work better without the kid. If Moses was on his own then you could have fun plotting his downfall and rooting against him the whole time. In this case you still do root against him, but now you feel bad for the kid who will be all alone again if he’s caught. It also shows how irresponsible the guy is to be doing all of this with a kid around. He just really doesn’t care though and even starts driving around a performer named Trixie and her assistant. By this point you sort of hope that Moses isn’t her father.

Okay, at least Moses is street smart and won’t be falling for any old gags right? Well, for some reason he is super naive when it comes to Trixie. Even ignoring her dubious career, why would he not suspect that she is conning him when he’s having to get new cars, treat her to a hotel room, etc. I get being a gentleman but it’s all going so fast and he’s not being introspective at all. Now this is terrible, but I would at least get it if she had pulled the moves on him or something. But none of that happened, she just said some nice things and he was completely under her heel. It took a bit initiative from Addie in order to save him.

This felt really out of character for Moses. So he’s a petty crook who picks on the vulnerable and then he’s not even all that smart? Definitely not a great main character. He got out scammed at his own game and beaten up for his efforts. In a lot of ways you could say that he got what was coming to him and the only reason you feel bad is because of Addie. Meanwhile Addie is getting used to a fast paced life that just isn’t going to be fulfilling long term. She should have just been content going home instead of staying all mixed up in this.

As a result it’s not like you can root for Addie either. Yes, she has a slightly better conscience than Moses as she won’t scam the very poor but she still scams everyone else. She seems to think it’s okay if the victim is rich but naturally that’s still not cool. You shouldn’t be scamming anybody, that’s just not a good thing to do. Ah well, there’s a lot to bash and make fun of with the main characters but the film does succeed at being an enjoyable movie.

The pacing is solid and the humor is good. While you won’t be rooting for the characters, they do hold themselves over well during the scenes themselves. The back and forth banter between them can be fun as well like at the diner. Addie definitely crushed Moses there even though he really tried to fight back. Ultimately she had all the cards in that situation and he really knew it. He was really just trying to bluff her but she was able to see through this and keep him on the back foot. Really impressive tactics all around there.

Overall, Th8is is definitely more of a low key film. It does show that crime doesn’t pay in the end so I appreciated that moral. I think the movie would have been more enjoyable if Moses had decided to gradually become a better person over the course of the film though. Maybe having Addie stop smoking, then slowly start scamming and wanting to work a job that she could be proud of. A gradual character arc like that would have worked really well I think and then given us a reason to actually root for them by the end. Every movie has an infinite amount of what ifs though. At the end of the day the film went its own way and it was still a good title. I’d recommend this to someone looking for a good time or who just wants a pleasant film without too much craziness.

Overall 6/10