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 Rash
Bette Midler	...	Mona Dearly
Neve Campbell	...	Ellen
Jamie Lee Curtis	...	Rona
Casey Affleck	...	Bobby
William Fichtner	...	Phil Dearly
Marcus Thomas	...	Jeff Dearly
Peter Dobson	...	Feege
Kathleen Wilhoite	...	Lucinda
Tracey Walter	...	Clarence
Will Ferrell	...	Cubby
Paul Ben-Victor	...	Carlucci
Paul Schulze	...	Jimmy D.
Mark Pellegrino	...	Murph
Raymond O'Connor	...	Father Tom

Storyline

Mona Dearly, a spiteful, loud-mouthed, unpopular woman, dies when the car she is driving plunges off a cliff and into a river near the small upstate New York town where she lives. Wyatt Rash, the local police chief, investigates and suspects foul play in Mona's death. The whole town is suspect, including Wyatt's daughter Ellen, who is about to marry landscape artist Bobby Calzone, whose business suffers 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:

drowning | suspect | waitress | crying woman | lawn mower | 

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Taglines:

The death of Mona Dearly wasn't so much a whodunnit, as a who didn't.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Mystery

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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:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$5,802,229, 5 March 2000, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$15,427,192, 9 April 2000

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$747,934, 31 December 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

Mona Dearly (Bette Midler) is an anagram for "only a dream".

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Goofs

Phil's shirt when he is looking in the mirror is dark, when he is in the funeral home in the next scene it is a white striped shirt. Jeff's shirt appears to be a black button down silk shirt with a green design, however when at the funeral home he has a regular black t-shirt with a band logo on. So both Phil & Jeff have different shirts on than what is shown them going to the wake in.

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Quotes

Chief Wyatt Rash: Along those lines.

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Connections

Referenced in Bette: Silent But Deadly (2000)

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Soundtracks

Sure As I'm Sittin' Here
Written by John Hiatt
Performed by Three Dog Night
Courtesy of MCA Records

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.)