Drowning Mona (2000)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Nick Gomez

Writer (WGA):

Peter Steinfeld (written by)

Release Date:

3 March 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Comedy

Tagline:

1 murder. 460 prime suspects. Not so much of a 'who done it' as a 'who didn't'.

Plot:

When a woman drives a car into the river to her death, everyone in town becomes a suspect.

Plot Keywords:

Yugo | Beer | Humor | Drowning | Screaming

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Danny DeVito	...	Chief Wyatt Rash
Bette Midler	...	Mona Dearly
Neve Campbell	...	Ellen Rash
Jamie Lee Curtis	...	Rona Mace
Casey Affleck	...	Bobby Calzone
William Fichtner	...	Phil Dearly
Marcus Thomas	...	Jeff Dearly
Peter Dobson	...	Lt. Feege Gruber
Kathleen Wilhoite	...	Lucinda
Tracey Walter	...	Clarence
Will Ferrell	...	Cubby the Funeral Director
Paul Ben-Victor	...	Deputy Tony Carlucci
Paul Schulze	...	Deputy Jimmy D.
Mark Pellegrino	...	Murph Calzone
Raymond O'Connor	...	Father Tom Stowick

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements, language and brief sexuality.

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #37219) | Iceland:10 (theatrical rating) | Iceland:LH (video rating) | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | UK:12

Filming Locations:

Beacon, New York, USA

Company:

Code Entertainment

Trivia:

Rona Mace, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, is an anagram for "A Romance"

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Jeph's car, with Mona driving, has no working brakes. When Mona backs out, we do not see brake lights come on, and the sound implies she uses the clutch to stop the car and go forward, thus never using the brakes.

Quotes:

Chief Wyatt Rash: Along those lines.

Movie Connections:

References Fletch (1985)

Soundtrack:

Wedding March Processional

unexpectedly funny

I did not expect much from this one, considering the lukewarm reviews it had gotten, and its brief time in the theaters. I was attracted by the cast - Dannny deVito, Bette Midler, Jamie Lee Curtis. I found it quite hilarious, as the earnest sheriff, DeVito, of Verplanck, N.Y., a down-at-the-heels upstate burg where everyone drives a Yugo due to a long-ago promotion scheme (an offbeat touch), attempts to solve the murder of the town's most hated woman, played by Middler. The script is very funny, and it is played well by all concerned. The collective i.q. of this God-forsaken hamlet does not appear to rise above room temperature. The frightening thing is that the tawdry machinations of all involved probably reflect pretty closely what life is really like in many trailer-park backwaters. My son & I found it a laugh riot. (As an aside, the movie accomplishes the seemingly impossible task of making Jamie Lee Curtis look positively wretched.)