Movie Review: Mad Money

Looking for a fun and witty heist film? Mad Money is not it. As I left the theater, I could not help but feel, shall we say, non-plussed. For a film that is marketed as a fun time, it is remarkable that there is a remarkable lack of said fun. There is no reason that this movie should not have been an absolute blast. Seriously. What was going on during the writing phase that they forgot to inject any entertainment in? The only thing that I can think of is that they got hung up on the plot and were using that as their roadmap, forgetting that they could safely diverge around the edges in order to give the audience something to like.

Mad Money uses the tried and true framing device of the flashback. Right from the get go we know that they are going to get caught, they already have been. This is a device that has worked well time and time again, but it those cases have always been in the hands of better filmmakers with better scripts. Another key to effective use of the flashback as framing device is having a story that has some sort of twist or turn, some kind of revelation to make it seem more than a device. Unfortunately, Mad Money has none of the necessary elements to make it work. So, rather than an interesting plot, we are left with the straightforward caper/comedy as presented.

On the topic of this being a caper/comedy, it may be categorized as such but it does not deliver on either. The caper is uninteresting and the comedy is nearly non-existent. It is a shame, too. The general idea and the cast, which is headlined by Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, and Katie Holmes, would seem to hold a lot of promise.

Such as it is, the story centers on Bridget Cardigan (Keaton). She is married to a well-to-do husband (Ted Danson) and lives a comfortable life. Their storybook life has a wrench thrown into the works when he is downsized and Bridget is forced to take a janitorial postion at the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. It is in this facility that old money is disposed of. The sight of all that soon-to-be shredded cash combined with her spying of a lock matching the one used on the money carts in a local Home Depot, topped with her need for funds sparks an idea.

In order for her idea to work, she needs to bring in a couple of accomplices. Those shoes are filled, of course, by Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes. Now, with a shredder, a "cart girl," and Keaton's janitor they have all the pieces needed to appropriate some of that soon to be destroyed loot for their personal recycling.

That about sums it up. As a caper it fails to deliver any suspense or thrills. If I didn't know this was a movie, I'd think it was pretty easy to rob a bank and if anyone ever caught on, all you'd need to do was cut them in on take. It seemed like everything went too easily. Never felt that there was any danger, heck, we already know they get caught.

Okay, so we have a lame caper, that leaves us the comedy. This fails to deliver much in the way of laughs. We get plenty of mugging and weak stabs at humor, but the script was more intent on moving the story long than developing laughs.

What's left? Well, there are the characters. Another swing and a miss. Everything points back to the script. No time is taken to develop the characters or give us any reason to care about them. The closest I felt to caring about a character would be Queen Latifah's Nina Brewster. She is a single mother who could use the funds to afford her children a better future, but is terribly afraid of losing those children should they get caught. As for Bridget, I felt no connection to her. And Katie Holmes' Jackie? Well, to be nice, she is just there and not given much to do.

The movie is not so awful as to get all riled up about, it is just sort of there, banking on its star power to draw in a few dollars at the box office. While it is not truly awful, it does not offer much and would best be seen as a DVD rental.

Bottomline. Keaton and Latifah have fine screen presence, and Holmes' re-introduction to the cineplex reveals a pretty but bland presence. Overall, the film fails to deliver on any of its promises, while proving to not be outright awful. It is an odd combination, one that adds up to a film that best be ignored but won't hurt too much to see.

Not Recommended.