FOR LOVE OR MONEY
A film review by Jon Ridge
Copyright 1993 by Jon Ridge
CAST: Michael J. Fox, Gabrielle Anwar, Anthony Higgins, Michael Tucker, Dan Hedaya, Bob Balaban (who never appeared...) DIRECTOR: Barry Sonnenfield SCREENPLAY: Mark Rosenthal, Lawrence Konner SCORE: Bruce Broughton RELEASE: October 1, 1993
I don't like movies that start off bad and end up that way, too. I don't like movies that present an audience with absolutely no redeeming values (nothing to laugh at, or cry about, or feel excited about). I don't like movies that front as something that they're not. I don't like movies like this one.
Michael J. Fox stars as Douglas Ireland, concierge at a ritzy hotel in New York. He doesn't take his work lightly--the man makes people feel useful, saves marriages, takes dogs for a walk, gives you tickets to any Broadway show you want. And Doug has a dream of creating his very own hotel, called THE DOUG, or THE RIVER HOUSE. He just needs to make a big-time money man very happy in the mean time, so that he can close a deal. To do this, he must take good care of the man's younger mistress (played by Gabrielle Anwar). The woman is beautiful, and Doug has been after her for some time now, so he gladly accepts the job and does whatever it takes to make his dream a reality.
Well, Doug falls in love with her (big surprise, huh?). The only problem is, he can't act on his feelings for risk of crushing his dream. Ah, what's a man to do...? I knew what would happen. In fact, I knew everything about this movie within the first ten minutes it played. FOR LOVE OR MONEY is an exercise in just how predictable and utterly worthless a comedy--or *movie*, in general--can be. It isn't funny, or romantic, or engaging, or surprising, or original in any way. Fox acts with some sort of smirk on his mug the whole time, and basically looks rather bored throughout the movie. The usually strong supporting "love interest" that should have backed him up--or, in this case, sufficed for him--is played by an enigmatic young actress named Gabrielle Anwar. We saw her briefly in SCENT OF A WOMAN, doing the tango with Al Pacino, but got nothing, no sort of impression, from her little screen time in the film. I guess FOR LOVE OR MONEY came to her in the wake of the success of that movie, she read over the screen play, and said, "Yeah, i should probably do this so I can work some more and survive in this business." It's just too bad for her that the script, by two different people, has *no* luster about it whatsoever.
And what about Michael J. Fox? What's his problem? I know he can be funny, I saw it in BACK TO THE FUTURE 1, 2, and 3. I know he can be dramatic, I saw that in CASUALTIES OF WAR. But lately, things just don't seem to be working out for him (first LIFE WITH MIKEY, and now this?). His character of concierge here is pretty much a nice guy-- but that's it. He's extremely shallow in the movie, and isn't able to give his character the gravity it so desperately needs.
I didn't want to give this movie a bad review--I hate doing that for *any* film. But the disappointing fact is: Bad movies often are written, and cast, and filmed. FOR LOVE OR MONEY should've stopped on the first level, been trashed, and then rewritten until it could make us care about it.
What we have here is an excruciatingly unnecessary film.
CRITICAL RATING: (1/2)* Rated PG-13, for very mild Profanity -- Running Time: 1:33m
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