STICKY FINGERS is a slight "caper comedy" with a twist: It was directed by a w woman (Catlin Adams), who co-wrote the film with Melanie Mayron, who co-stars in the film with Helen Slater. Mayron and Slater play a couple of hipster doofus women named Leila and Harriet but who go by hipper Lolly and Hattie. They are classical musicians trying to make it in New York but end up playing in the park for spare change. A friend asks them to stow a bag while she goes out of town, and the gals are shocked to find it contains $900,00. After their apartment is robbed and their violin and cello are taken, they "dip" into the bag to buy new instruments (they have an audition coming up). The exhilaration they feel when plunking down more than $90,000 for new instruments goes to their heads and they can't resist going on a massive shopping spree. Of course the money belongs to the mob and strange men start following them around town.
Certainly not a classic, but this is a fine little comedy with some great moments. Thugs and cops aside, the cast is made up of mostly women. Eileen Brennan plays the cranky landlady and Carol Kane is her nutty sister. Loretta Devine plays the money woman, Danitra Vance plays their street-wsie friend, Shirley Stoler plays a neighbor, and Gwen Welles plays a weird stalker who follows Mayron and her boyfriend (Christopher Guest) around the city. Contemporary reviews were really snarky and dismissive and really missed the comic energy Mayron and Slater bring to this romp.
Mayron had reinvented herself by losing weight and that frizzy hairdo she sported in films like HARRY AND TONTO and GIRLFRIENDS. She had landed on the hit TV series THIRTYSOMETHING (and won an Emmy) but she retained that wry sense of always being the outsider but accepting that fact.
Worth a look if you can find it.
