Cookie's Fortune is a 1999 American black comedy[3] film directed by Robert Altman and starring Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Patricia Neal, Charles S. Dutton, and Chris O'Donnell.

Jewel Mae "Cookie" Orcutt, an elderly dowager in Holly Springs, Mississippi, lives alone in a large house and is helped out daily by Willis Richland, her African American handyman and closest friend.

Her pretentious niece, Camille, who directs local church theater productions, stops by later that day to borrow a glass fruit bowl.

She removes a prized diamond and ruby necklace from Cookie's neck and throws the pistol in the garden (observed while doing so by Ronnie, a young boy who lives next door).

The same night, Jason encounters Camille and Cora moving into Cookie's house, despite it being an active crime scene, and calls backup to escort them off the property.

Emma visits Willis at the police station, where Boyle and a local attorney, Jack Palmer—both fishing buddies of Willis's—casually play Scrabble with him in his unlocked cell.

Meanwhile, Cora and Camille return to Cookie's home and begin cleaning her bloodied bedding and removing the crime scene tape, assuming they are to inherit the house.

After police match the blood type to Camille, they descend upon the church as Cora is enticingly performing the play's Dance of the Seven Veils sequence.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Robert Altman's gift for diffuse storytelling is employed to breezily enjoyable effect in Cookie's Fortune, a mirthful caper that layers on a generous helping of Southern charm.

"[1] Desson Thomson of The Washington Post gave the film modest praise, writing: "By reducing his passion for actorly preciousness, Western Union symbolism and klutzy metaphor, Altman functions instead as a good manager of a decently written product.

And he adheres sensibly to the filmmaking style that has served him for decades: introduce the actors to this moss-covered, indolent world, then leave them to sort things out in time for the ending.