Take the Money, but Don't Run
Was there something in the Perrier during the filming of "Father of the Bride"? The 1991 film seemed like a pleasant family comedy at the time, but evidence suggests it compromised the creative instincts of its stars. Once two of the most likable and intelligent movie actors around, Steve Martin and Diane Keaton descended to making such pap as "Because I Said So" (she), "Cheaper By the Dozen" (he), and "Father of the Bride Part II" (both of them). Now Mr. Martin, whose excellent new memoir, "Born Standing Up," chronicles his electric 1970s comedy career, is filming "Pink Panther II" while Ms. Keaton is starring in the new comedy "Mad Money." The curse continues.
"Mad Money," directed by Callie Khouri ("Thelma & Louise"), is a heist movie that is not afraid to tackle the tough issues: It is against corporate downsizing and bureaucratic arrogance, and in favor of sisters doing it for themselves. Ms. Keaton plays Bridget Cardigan, a housewife whose upper-middle-class household is upended when her husband Don (Ted Danson) is dumped from his job as some sort of manager. Months later, he tries to sell their house without telling her — and, by the way, they're $286,000 in debt. Armed only with a decades-old degree in comparative literature, Bridget needs a job. After landing one as a cleaning lady at the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City and asking Don what the Federal Reserve Bank actually does, it quickly dawns on Bridget that there's a whole lot of cash at the Federal Reserve Bank. Specifically, there's a whole lot of old, dirty bills that are shredded each day to make way for the newly minted stuff. Seemingly without much internal debate, she decides to figure out how to steal it. After all, the job market is tough. It's not fair that someone like her should be reduced to cleaning toilets! And, she argues, the money was just going to be thrown out anyway.
Bridget bands together in this newly minted scheme with two other employees, Jackie (Katie Holmes) and Nina (Queen Latifah, who, incidentally, starred with Mr. Martin in the insipid 2003 comedy "Bringing Down the House," which will air Sunday on the USA Network). Nina is a hardworking single mother to two young boys, and lives in a neighborhood whose rough denizens are played for laughs when Bridget ventures a visit there. And Jackie is a dim-witted diabetic hippie who lives in a trailer with her even dimmer husband.
As the three women set Bridget's plan in motion, minor complications ensue even as they succeed in stealing thousands of dollars intended for the shredder. Don discovers the women's stash and weakly protests. A bank guard (Roger Cross) with a crush on Nina detects her role in the scheme, a crucial key gets tossed down the sink, and the bank's head of security (Stephen Root) smells a rat. In between, the gleeful trio of criminals gathers for beers, scheming, and girl talk at a local barbecue joint. And there are montages. Lots and lots of montages.
Thin as the film may be, Ms. Keaton can't turn off her talent. She is natural and affecting as a wholly unsympathetic thief, and she and Mr. Danson make a good pair. In a sweet scene in their car, he becomes especially amorous when she mentions their house, rescued from the selling block — parking is for teenagers, but apparently adults are hot for mortgages. Ms. Latifah, too, is comfortable in her saintly role. Ms. Holmes, in her first film role since her highly publicized marriage to Tom Cruise, is strangely girlish in an underwritten part.
Screenwriter Glenn Gers ("Fracture") sidles up to a few halfway interesting questions about work and money, but never finds anything incisive to say about them. "Even if you've got stuff," one character says of shopping, "the way they lay it out makes you want it." (True enough.) Jackie's husband wants to quit his job to help her, while Bridget's man wonders if it's really so wrong that he misses sitting in an office all day. But the film's hasty ending, played as a sassy ode to feminism, or something, should leave hardworking moviegoers with an unpleasant taste in their mouths.
In the end, "Mad Money" isn't particularly smart or funny. But why not go ahead and see it? The money is just going to be thrown out anyway.
Ms. Graham is an editor at Domino magazine.
