Who couldn’t use a couple million extra dollars? The three women in “Mad Money” certainly could — all for different reasons.
Bridget (Diane Keaton) wants to maintain her upper-class lifestyle after her husband’s sudden unemployment. Nina (Queen Latifah) needs a better life for her sons. And Jackie (Katie Holmes), well, she just wants some friends. Thus the scene is set for three low-level employees of the Federal Reserve to begin “recycling” worn out money marked for destruction.
What is instantly striking about “Mad Money” is how strong all the performances are. This should hardly be a surprise with such solid warhorses like Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Ted Danson.
But the most pleasant surprise comes from Katie Holmes. She manages to not only overcome the kooky controversies of her private life but also her lack of ability to act in her past roles. Her dour, scene-sucking energy seen previously in “Batman Begins” and “Dawson’s Creek” is gone, replaced with a total commitment to playing her character.
Not only do the actors portray their characters well, but they have wonderful chemistry with one another. As their lives slowly begin to intertwine, the audience can see the bonds forming. Each character is a fully realized person with complexities — some endearing and some off-putting.
Of course, fabulous as they are, not all credit can be given to the actors. After all, the screenwriters were the ones who created the world and infused it with these complexities. There are holes in Bridget’s plan to steal soon-to-be-destroyed money from the Federal Reserve, and yes, some of the hijinks are improbable. But the writers have so successfully grounded everything revolving around that plot, disbelief is easily suspended. They have paced the action well and managed to show sweet moments that are genuine, not cloying.
That is not to say the writers were entirely successful. They inexplicably wrote in annoying, unnecessary voiceovers that ruin some of the suspense they build up. The ending is unexpected but fitting and poignant. That ending is followed by an unfortunate epilogue that undermines the film’s message and turns it into a typical Hollywood feel-good movie. And since the protagonists were so well-rounded, it would have been nice to have written the antagonists out of something more substantial than cardboard.
Like in any heist movie, there are embedded messages about the disadvantages of capitalism, and the filmmakers invite the audience to participate with complicity. “Mad Money” introduces these themes as well as the moral ambiguity of rooting for the bad guys but without stooping to being overly preachy.
While “Mad Money” is certainly no blueprint for pulling off the nearly perfect heist against the government, it is a perfectly suitable way to spend a couple of hours.
Rating: Three out of five stars.
