A sleepy Rhode Island community is easily corrupted by a handful of eccentric characters (including Traci Lords and Simon Rex) when an unclaimed bag of money is found at a murder scene.

In "Old Henry," director Potsy Ponciroli spills excessive blood on and around the porch of a frontier ranch. "And for what? For a little money," as Fargo police chief Marge Gunderson put it after solving a similarly senseless crime a century later. Ponciroli reunites with Coen brothers collaborator Tim Blake Nelson for his second feature, "Greedy People," and swaps the lawless West for today's tightly policed Northeast, setting a darkly comic money grab in the city of Providence, Rhode Island.

This time around, Ponciroli is directing from someone else's script, and while the new film feels even more Coen-esque than his first, it lacks the blunt, unforgiving quality that distinguished "Old Henry." That film doffed its hat to its influences; this one seems to borrow the whole damn uniform. Just look at the way it opens and closes with a deceptively effective female police chief (Uzo Aduba), who also happens to be the only character with her priorities in place. The only thing missing is the wood chipper.

So here’s the deal: It’s police rookie Will’s (Himesh Patel) first day on the job, and he’s paired with Terry (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), an unruly local cop with a lot of bad habits and an even worse mustache. Terry is a real chore, practically hazing Will while blasting heavy metal music and forcing the newbie to wait outside while he stops for a quick meeting with an immigrant housewife. You half expect him to make racist jokes, but instead Terry reveals that he’s been learning Chinese in his spare time.