Drowning Mona

... even the police.

Bette Midler, even though she is the title character, gets second billing to Danny DeVito.

In the recently released "Isn't She Great" she gets to play both sides of the ugly/beautiful coin and she does it here again brilliantly.

Sherriff Wyatt Rash (DeVito) has too many suspects in the death of Mona. Everyone would like to see her dead.

Neve Campbell as his daughter (Ellen) turns in a fine performance. Her breakdown and ultimate (short-lived) lesbian experience with the town's mechanic is either over-the-top -- or just short of being brilliant; hard to tell.

Casey Affleck (Ben's little brother) is very one-note -- I want to believe that it was written that way and that Bobby is not as shallow as the script would have us believe.

This is not a film that will appeal to everyone -- but hang in -- it only gets better as it goes along.

I enjoyed it -- and as I reflect on it -- it only gets better.

Drowning Mona is now a cult favorite of mine. The script is unusual yet amazingly funny. Every time I watch this movie, my understanding of its comedic genius grows. Especially for English language buffs, this film's edgy and blatant use of word order and delivery are what make it so hilarious. No line is extraneous or meaningless--they all add up to one hell of a funny film. I'd recommend this to serious movie goers who enjoy an intellectual thrill, a script that puts faith in the audience's ability to understand and not be told outright. If you crave a change from the typical Hollywood Blockbuster formula of drugs, sex, violence, and sentimental life lessons, watch this film. It still manages to deliver action and comedy--but are you smart enough to watch it?

Maybe Danny DeVito and Bette Midler should collaborate more often. The two times they did it was comedy gold. While this movie is not as flat out hilarious as "Ruthless People," it should still be enjoyed by the same people who love that movie. It starts with a prologue stating how Verplanck, New York was the location where they decided to launch the Yugo line of cars in America. As a result, everyone in town, including the police, drives a Yugo car, and they all have catchy license plates like UGOMONA, ELLEEE, and OH RONE.

As the title suggests, this black little whodunit concerns who opted to rid the small town of Verplanck of its nastiest inhabitant, the matriarchal hag Mona Dearly (Midler, who chews up every inch of the screen in her "Rashomon"-esque flashback scenes). Police Chief Wyatt Rash (Danny DeVito, playing against type as the straight man), is determined to find out, even if nobody else cares to help. It's come at a bad time, because he's trying to help his daughter Ellie (Neve Campbell) plan her big wedding to mild-mannered land-scaper Bobby Calzone (Casey Affleck), who has just ended up short-handed after his beer-guzzling partner Jeff Dearly (Marcus Thomas, the epitome of slackerdom) takes a leave of absence. Bobby also seems unnaturally concerned with the the death of a woman who meant only bad things for him.

The characters, while bordering on cartoons, are played tongue-in-cheek, and you know the actors had fun doing it. There's the chain-smoking waitress Rhona Mace (Jamie Lee Curtis), who's having an affair with the deceased's husband Phil (William Fichtner, who walks away with the movie as a complete scumbag), and Bobby's overbearing brother Murph (Mark Pellegrino). The cops are just as zany, with Peter Coyote as the do-gooder lieutenant, and Paul Ben-Victor and Paul Schulze (Ryan Chapelle from "24") as a couple of bumbling idiots who seem to be good for one thing, looking out for Numbers One. There's Katherine Wilhoite as Lucinda, the lesbian folk-singer mechanic, and the great Tracey Walter is on board as the local fisherman who nobody really knows much about. Add in a foul-mouthed, alcoholic priest, and a funeral director who's also an amateur pornographer (Will Ferrell before he became huge), and it's a feast for those with a twisted sense of humor.

Why are people so hard on Drowning Mona? I just saw it and enjoyed it a lot. In years to come I believe it will be seen as the same genre as The Good Girl - an attempt to bring very ordinary people to life without apologizing for their ordinariness. In A Good Girl, Jennifer Aniston works very hard to portray an ordinary, poorly-educated young woman in a dead-end job. She has to really work hard to suppress the natural intelligence of a very bright mind and make her ordinary girl sufficiently dumb. But she does it beautifully. In Drowning Mona - portraying Bobby Calzone, Casey `Affleck has a similar challenge. I think he creates his character brilliantly. I am so shocked to find higher up this page that Casey is ashamed of his work on this movie. Can this be true? It seems quite possible - on my DVD package he is the only major cast-member who doesn't give an interview. Casey is handsome and delightful but he manages to leave an impression of terminal dumbness. All the guy wants is to make a reasonable living fixing gardens, but his problems seem insurmountable and it's getting to him. I get the feeling that none of the cast were stirred or excited with Drowning Mona - you need to see the on-set interviews to judge this. Nevertheless it is a successful little film in its own terms and has a lot of gentle humor in it. Affleck, deVito, Midler, Lee Curtis do a very professional ensemble piece as you would expect. As a former copywriter I find the landscaping company slogan hysterically funny: J & B Landscaping - `Yeah, we can do that'. I get the impression the whole cast read through a rather 'thin' script and said exactly that.

In a town full of "Yugo" cars, and mentally challenged residents, we find fertile ground for a terrific dark comedy. Bette Midler plays Mona, a monstrous woman everybody has a reason to hate. When her Yugo plunges into the lake due to foul play, no one seems to care that she is dead, and everyone is a suspect in "Drowning Mona". William Fichtner absolutely steals this movie, as Mona's "battered husband", who likes to play "Wheel of Fortune" with Jamie Lee Curtis. Meanwhile, Danny DeVito, as the sheriff, has plenty of suspects, including his future son-in law. If you enjoy "black comedies" like "Ruthless People" or "Eating Raoul", this is a must see, and comes highly recommended. - MERK