Drowning Mona (2000)

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

Director:

Nick Gomez

Writer:

Peter Steinfeld

Stars:

Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Neve Campbell

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

Mona Dearly, a spiteful, loud-mouthed, unpopular woman dies when the car she is driving in plunges off a cliff and into a river near the small upstate New York town where she lives. Wyatt Rash, the local police chief, investivates and suspects foul play in Mona's death and tries to contain the whole town whom all are suspects who include Wyatt's daughter Ellen, who is going to marry landscape artist Bobby Calzone whose business was suffering from his lazy business partner, Jeff, Mona's slow-witted son, as well as waitress Rona Mace, who was having an affair with Mona's husband.

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Plot Keywords:

suspect | yugo | overalls | drowning | car accident | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Crime | Mystery | Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 March 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Qui a tué Mona?

Filming Locations:

Santa Clarita, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$16,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$5,802,229 (USA) (3 March 2000)

Gross:

$15,427,192 (USA) (7 April 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Code Entertainment, Jersey Shore, Marigold Productions Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first thing to appear on screen is a little blurb about the Yugo car company using the town of Verplanck as a test area for their new model years ago. Every vehicle in town that is not a truck is a Yugo, except the police cruisers, which are Plymouth Horizons.

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Goofs

When Chief Wyatt Rash gets into his car to check Bobby's alibi with Murph, camera is visible in car door reflection.

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Quotes

Jeff Dearly: Where's my car?
Deputy Jimmy D.: Well Jeff, it's a little bit more serious than you're car.
[pause]
Jeff Dearly: Would someone mind tellin me what the hell's goin on?
Deputy Tony Carlucci: Your mother drove her car into the lake Jeff, I'm afraid she's dead.
Jeff Dearly: What was she doing in my car?

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Connections

References Auntie Mame (1958)

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Soundtracks

"Popcorn"
Written by Gershon Kingsley
Performed by Hot Butter
Courtesy of Rhino Entertainment/Global Licensing Inc.

User Reviews

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.)