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Susan Granger's review of "DROWNING MONA" (Destination Films)
In this comedic whodunit, Bette Midler plays a despicable, foul-mouthed woman whom any number of people had both a desire and a motive to murder. So, when her yellow Yugo has a problem negotiating a curve and ends up plunging off a cliff into a lake near her hometown of Verplanck in New York's Hudson Valley, the chief of police (Danny DeVito) suspects foul play. Indeed, he discovers her brake lines were cut. But who is the culprit? Is it her long-suffering, battered husband (William Fichtner)? What about her belligerent, moronic, one-handed son (Marcus Thomas) or his handsome business partner (Casey Affleck), whom happens to be engaged to the police chief's daughter (Neve Campbell). Or could it be the town's most promiscuous waitress (Jamie Lee Curtis)? Other suspects include the local auto mechanic (Kathleen Wilhoite) who specializes in Yugos, a cop who scolded Mona for speeding (Peter Dobson), and a snoopy neighbor (Tracey Walter). Screenwriter Peter Steinfeld and director Nick Gomez shamelessly pilfer Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry and Murder on the Orient Express, tossing in plot twists and nasty red herrings which tend to fall flat in the midst of the tasteless mess that should have been a wacky farce. Whodunit? Who cares? On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, Drowning Mona is a floundering 4. And Bette Midler played this type of odious oddball once before - remember Ruthless People?
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