Arnold
CibbuanoDrowning Mona
October 20th 2006 12:01
Drowning Mona (2000)
I have to admit that this film didn't really appeal to me right from the start. I mean, an ensemble comedy/mystery, featuring fairly average talent (for the most part) - it just didn't grab me. But, it was on telly, and I had nothing better to do...
Mona (Midler) is the town bitch - her family are barely above animal status, and even they hate her. The film kicks off with her death, apparently caused by sabotage to her car, and from there we follow the local cop (DeVito) in his investigation - the only problem is, almost everyone has a reason for killing her.
YAWN. This is a film that needs to be clever, but it's not. All of it's 'tricks' would've amused and interested me if they hadn't been pulled out of the hat long, long ago by other films. It attempts to be a humourous small-town character piece with lots of twists, but it just comes off as uninspired crap. The cast is full of familiar names, but it's the more unfamiliar ones who actually take their performances somewhere interesting, the famous ones just dick around in the more clichéd ways.
The underrated William Fichtner (playing Mona's husband, Phil) and Marcus Thomas (previously unknown to me, playing Mona's son, Jeff) are among the few characters who actually managed to engage my attention in a fashion that didn't involve me thinking 'hey, this actor annoys me'. Casey Affleck is just whiney, DeVito doesn't really do anything notable. Neve Campbell is boring. Midler barely appears and when she does she does little more than shout a lot. Jamie Lee Curtis only served to remind me that her status as 'sex symbol' is probably one of the worst cases of mass hallucination ever recorded. And Will Ferrell's character was just bizarre and seemed completely out of place.
Well hey, it kinda passed the time with minimal clock-checks, so I guess it can't be all that bad. It's just pap, that's all.
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Comment by Keira
Keira's Blog
Sounds like a movie to show someone who hasn't seen ANYTHING before to sum all other movies up.