Drowning Mona (2000)

This sometimes dark, sometimes slapstick, sometimes subtle comedy boasts one of the most intriguing casts to date. There are a number of recognizable faces, Danny De Vito, Bette Midler, Jamie Lee Curtis (to name a few), that brighten up the screen just that much. But to be honest, it was the roles played by Casey Affleck, Marcus Thomas, and William Fichtner especially that made 'Drowning Mona' so enjoyable for me. The movie itself goes back and forth between present time and flashbacks containing moments of a living Mona Dearly, who dies rather abruptly at the very beginning of the film. I think too many people say the plot it predictable. I was more than entertained for the entire movie and I never actually knew who actually killed Mona. Sure I had my predictions, and who doesn't. The point is that the movie's very funny and actually quite smart.The answer to the mystery is neat enough and the generous extras, including featurette, deleted scenes and director's commentary showed just how much fun everyone had making it. Writer Peter Steinfeld aptly called his script "a white-trash Murder On The Orient Express"-a fair enough summary. It's also interesting to note that all the stars in this-and many are well-known names were all people director Nick Gomez wanted for his first choice, and he was so pleased they consented to make this little movie, but I'm not too surprised cos many of these stars come across as far more genuine that all the typical so-called A-lister buck-chasers. Just a shame they should always have to do so in a barely-known comedy that burns the laughter stripes easily from the multiplex trash that almost always pass for comedies whilst putting bums on scenes.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

I am so missing my copy of, "Drowning Mona", luckily it has been on my cable movie channel lately. Anyway, I have always been shocked that this film never saw more critical acclaim. To me it is the epitome of what a, "dark comedy", should be. The tremendous word play, goofy (yet well developed characters as well as character relationships), even though the characters were mostly small town and moronic, they were intertwined/interwoven in such a smart and believable way to me it is a tragedy this film is not known to most movie lovers, for it is high up on my list of all time favorite funny movies. Although thanks to your website I have at least come to find out that this film has been characterized as having a cult following, which makes me feel more at ease. The all star cast delivers one liners after one liners that all add up to such a hilarious finish, not only does it get better with age like a great bottle of red wine or single malt, but I always come away noticing something(albeit small) new. Spending time growing up both in a Pennsylvanian small town and the Bay Area, I love the small town feel of this movie, yet I find the characters intellect to be closer to those of big city even though they're relationships are more small town. Anyway I love this movie, and never do things like this but just had to give props to the creators, writer, and cast for such a spectacular piece of art, big up's!

Mona Dearly of upstate New York was a housewife and mother of a son played by none other than Bette Midler. She was married to Phil (played by the wonderful William Fichtner) Mona was abusive, mean, and probably the most disliked person in the small town. Her husband claimed to have been battered man. Watching Mona in action, you can understand his claims. Her husband Phil is having an affair with a diner waitress Rona, played by the wonderful Jamie Lee Curtis, who is also having an affair with Phil and Mona's son at the same time It's like a Jerry Springer episode at times. Neve Campbell plays Ellen who is engaged to Calzone, Casey Affleck's character, and is pregnant. Her father is played by the wonderfully talented Danny DeVito as the town Sheriff. There are other characters like lesbian Lucina who comforts Ellen with a kiss. The writing is fair to say the least. The cast look like they are having the time of their lives on screen and it comes across off screen as well.

I finally figured out why so many people consider this movie to be a piece of crap. It's a comedy about 'white trash' and the people who can't find humor in it are from that group of 'white trash'. They can't laugh at their own miserable existence, or even recognize it, so how can they catch the jokes in this movie? "That's your problem Phil, you don't think!" Morbid humor is far past the limited range these people have in their pea-brains. The side-line humor is endless in this movie. It never stops being hilarious. OH RONA is great, along with the super-intellect police, the influenced priest, and all the other side characters. So you 'white trash' limited ones out there, keep laughing at each others racist/sexist jokes and Jay Leno. People with brains more advanced than the New York Times can enjoy humor that requires some thinking, some memory, some intellectual analysis of the human condition, and so on. You people probably can't even get the humor in Dr. Strangelove.