High Heels and Low Lifes(2001)

Submitted by Sassy McFresh

The movie begins with Ray (Darren Boyd), Shannon’s boyfriend, at home playing with his radio equipment. His hobby is recording cell phone conversations and making an “urban symphony” with them. We then meet Shannon (Minnie Driver), an overworked nurse at a busy London hospital, and her friend Frances (Mary McCormack), a struggling American actress trying to make it in London.

Ray forgets Shannon’s birthday, they fight, he leaves, and Frances takes Shannon out on the town drinking and dancing.

When they return, the radio equipment is still on, and they hear a phone conversation between a young man and his girlfriend.

It turns out that this young man, Danny, is on the lookout for a bank heist and is talking on his cell phone while killing time. Shannon and Frances think this is odd, so they write down the guy’s phone number.

The next day, while both of them are at their workplaces, they hear the news reports of the robbery. They head to the police station and try to tell what they know, but it is so busy that the captain won’t even listen to her.

Frustrated, they come up with a blackmail plan. Shannon needs some convincing, so Frances says they’ll use the money to purchase new equipment for the hospital. They plan to call the phone number, Danny, and tell him that they know all about it and if he doesn’t pay them $300,000 (pounds, dollars… I don’t know), they’ll turn him in. Frances disguises her voice to sound like a man.

Danny is a dimwit and agrees to the exchange. The money is placed in a garbage can near a park. Unfortunately, a bum searches through the garbage before the girls can get to it. Lucky for them, however, Danny, not knowing who the voice at the other end of the phone was, returns and, with the help of his boss Mason, guns down the bum. The bad guys leave, and Shannon cares for the bum’s wounds (remember, she’s a nurse). The girls discover that there wasn’t any money in the bag after all.

They figure out where Danny lives and break into his apartment. While searching around the apartment, Mason enters. Shannon is upstairs, and Frances (remember, she’s an actress) acts like a hooker waiting for Danny to arrive. Mason pays her, and she leaves. Danny comes home, and Mason shoots him under orders from the big boss. Mason leaves, and Shannon cares for Danny’s wounds.

Eventually, the plot leads to where Mason and his henchman are on a train sitting near Shannon (although they don’t know it’s her) with Frances waiting under a train trestle. The money demand is now one million. Frances calls them, and they toss the briefcase of money (so we think) off the moving train, where Frances waits for it below. She puts it in her car but is pulled away by a farmer wanting her off his land. Mason presses a remote control switch, and the briefcase blows up.

The Big boss calls Mason and tells him that he’s done some investigative work, and one of the two people is a woman wearing a large divers watch. Mason looks over at Shannon and sees her watch, and kidnaps her as she’s getting off the train.

Frances has made it to the station just in time (stealing the farmer’s car), and after a bit of gunplay, Frances and Shannon drive off.

They determine that it’s now time to get tough, and they break into Mason’s house and tie him up. They demand he tell them where the safe is. He refuses, so Shannon begins to inject him with a drug that will kill him. Frances protests, so Shannon shoots and kills her (yeah, like we believe she’s dead).

Now realizing that Shannon is nuts, Mason tells her where the safe is. As she takes the money and locks Mason in the safe, the henchman arrives and frees Mason.

Another gunfight begins, but Frances is outside with all of Mason’s weapons this time. He had a lot of them. The next few minutes are a kind of slapstick comedy as, eventually, the girls get away with the money while the now drugged-up Mason is loopy as the cops arrive and the henchman lies in the bushes, having been shot by one of the girls.

The next scene is back at the hospital as truckloads of new equipment are being delivered.

The girls are walking away, trying to tell themselves that it’s okay that all the money went to the hospital. As they turn the corner, Shannon surprises Frances with a new Mercedes, and Frances opens her bag, showing that she kept “a little” money herself.

The final scene shows the girls driving away.