Mad Money

Ick. That was my response to Mad Money, a movie I cannot recommend on any level. What a waste of Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Ted Danson! What a tawdry little script! And what was Katie Holmes thinking, she who is supposedly being choosy about her films?

Caper films can be a lot of fun. I imagine that the original idea was that this was to be a feminist version of The Bank Job or something similar, but if that was the plan, it went sadly astray. Keaton portrays the same character she often does, the college-educated, upper crust pampered housewife. Her husband (Danson) loses his job and it threatens her lifestyle, and after a stint doing working-class labor, she simply goes berserk. She takes a janitorial job at a Federal Reserve Bank where the security is run by idiots, and comes up with a scheme for stealing the bills slated for shredding.

For this plot, she needs accomplices, and she badgers the Queen Latifah character into joining her, along with a dimwit played by Katie Holmes. The only character who comes off with much integrity at all is the Queen Latifah character. Once they taste success, Diane Keaton's character is consumed by greed unlimited by good sense or a self-preservation.

The characters are cardboard cutouts, impossible to care for. The plot is silly: there are holes in the logic large enough to accomodate an armored car. Callie Khouri, who is capable of better things (Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood, Thelma & Louise) should have known better.

Shame on all of you. Thumb's down.