Himesh Patel, Lily James, Tim Blake Nelson and Uzo Aduba also star in the twisty tale about the violent goings-on in a small island town, from director Potsy Ponciroli.

“Don’t kill anybody unless you have to,” a rookie cop is told on his first day on the job in Greedy People. Not long afterward, he accidentally does just that, setting off a spiral of lethal events that give the the darkly comic thriller an impressive body count. Unfortunately, the proceedings become increasingly tiresome the more the characters are killed off, with the result that despite an impressive cast, the film comes to feel like a Coen brothers rip-off.

Will’s partner Terry (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, relishing his character’s sleaziness) convinces him to cover his tracks and blame the killing on a burglar — especially after they discover $1 million in cash in the house, which they decide to keep. Then it turns out that the woman’s husband, a rich shrimp dealer (Tim Blake Nelson), had already hired a hit man to murder his wife so he would be free to marry his lover (Nina Arianda). Naturally, he suspects that he’s been double-crossed.  

Screenwriter Mike Vukadinovich (the Jim Carrey Showtime series Kidding, Rememory) works hard for a black comic vibe and sometimes succeeds, as when The Irishman comments about his profession, “Even the most unpleasant job can be done ethically.” But more often than not, you can feel the strain as the film clumsily attempts to blend graphically brutal violence with deadpan humor — one example being the title only being displayed onscreen more than 20 minutes in.

Director Potsy Ponciroli demonstrated real talent with his critically acclaimed Western Old Henry, but he’s not quite able to pull this one off. The film lacks the necessary brazen stylization to allow for the escalating absurdities (by the time the story reaches its conclusion, there are few survivors, which would seem a real deterrent when it comes to the island’s tourism) and plethora of unnecessary subplots.

Despite the hard-working efforts of its impressively game ensemble, Greedy People fails to fulfill its considerable ambitions. It lives up to its title by greedily attempting to have its comic cake and eat its violence, too.