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.

---

Plot Keywords:

suspect | yugo | overalls | drowning | car accident | 

---

Taglines:

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

---

Genres:

Crime | Mystery | Comedy

---

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.

---

Goofs

At the beginning of the wedding, Cubby is standing off to the side and has a piece of confetti (which has yet to be thrown) on his lapel. At the end of the scene, after the confetti has been thrown, as he is led away, the confetti is gone and his suit looks newly pressed.

---

Quotes

Deputy Tony Carlucci: (to Phil Dearly, after informing him of his wife's death) So, uh... you want to tell Jeff about his mom, or do you think we should do it, or...
Phil Dearly: Yeah! Uh...
Deputy Jimmy D: I mean, we'd be more than happy to do it, Phil, you know, it's just that, coming from you it may cushion the blow.
Deputy Tony Carlucci: Being that, you know, he's your son and all.
Phil Dearly: Well, in that case, it might be best if one of you did it.

---

Connections

References Rashomon (1950)

---

Soundtracks

"Wedding March Processional"
Written by Rick Rhodes (as Anthony Goddard) and Ron Komie
Courtesy of One Music Library/Jim Long Music

User Reviews

Not Bad, Not great either

Drowning Mona is a hard movie to describe. On the one hand, I liked it because, the cast seemed to be doing the best with what the script they had to work with. On the other hand, the plot seemed choppy and the dialogue was for the most part pretty stale. Will Ferrell absolutely steals the movie with his part as the creepy funeral director who laughs inappropiately, has trouble with the right way to make eye contact, and is constantly having sexual trysts during the viewing. If you're looking for an offbeat comedy, give this a try. But don't rush out and kill yourself to see it.