WHERE THE MONEY IS A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): **
If Paul Newman would bottle his really secret sauce, he could make more than an Internet IPO. Whatever it is that he takes, it makes him look two years younger and better every year. And even with his white hair, he's no blonde bimbo, he seems to get brighter with advancing age.
All of the above notwithstanding, the mere casting of Newman in WHERE THE MONEY IS isn't enough to guarantee that the picture will be compelling. Any actor needs some material to work with, and the screenplay by the writing committee of E. Max Frye, Topper Lilien and Carroll Cartwright is sorely lacking in plot and character development. The most impressive credentials for the latter two writers, as noted in the film's press kit, is that Movieline in 1992 named their script for HELLO, STRANGER as one of the top 10 unproduced screenplays. This reminds me of the biggest bass that I never caught. You wouldn't believe its size.
The setup for this three-person story is that an old bank robber, Henry (Newman), gets released briefly from prison by faking a stroke. With the prison hospital full, Henry is taken to a nursing home composed almost exclusively of elderly women.
One savvy nurse, Carol (Linda Fiorentino), figures out his con and decides to force him out of his fake coma. Fiorentino (THE LAST SEDUCTION) has a take-no-prisoners sexuality that most directors shy away from. In one scene, director Marek Kanievska, takes advantage of this as he has her use lap dancing to coax a little life out of Henry. He proves a tough bird, however, who requires something more drastic for him to break his spell than a beautiful woman rubbing against him.
As her husband, Wayne (who was the king to her queen at their high school prom), Dermot Mulroney is given the least of all to do in an underdeveloped script. We know that he's a bit of a screw-up and that he likes having sex with Fiorentino -- who wouldn't? -- but we learn remarkably little more.
Since Henry's a bank robber by trade and since Carol and Wayne aren't exactly in the chips, you might figure that the movie would involve a big robbery. If you did, you'd be right. The robbery, however, is made both needlessly complicated and ridiculously easy to execute. Similarly, the film's ending is entirely too neat, unbelievable and completely predictable.
A few parts of the movie are worth recommending. Beside the nicely done lap dancing scene, Fiorentino has a great short scene in which she uses her sexual charms to overpower a young bank clerk. This wide-eyed lad ends up giving her a toaster oven without her having to open the required bank account. Personally, I would have given her two.
WHERE THE MONEY IS runs 1:28, but the film's slow pacing belies its short length. It is rated PG-13 for sex and language and would be acceptable for teenagers.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews