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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Unattractive characters inspire only rare chuckles, 4 Jan 2003
DROWNING MONA begins with the on-screen message that the fictional town in the film, Verplanck, NY, was selected as a test market for the Yugo automobile. That's why everybody seems to drive them - old ones. It says a lot about the film that this is one of its more amusing aspects.Mona is Mona Dearly, played by Bette Midler, a hateful gorgon of a woman who drowns when her car (a Yugo, naturally) plummets off a cliff into the Hudson River. After it's discovered that the vehicle's brake fluid has been drained and the brake lines cut, Verplanck's Police Chief Rash, portrayed by Danny DeVito, astutely smells murder. Unfortunately, there are too many individuals who might have wished the hellcat dead: her son Jeff, her husband Phil, her son's and husband's lover Rona (played by Jamie Lee Curtis), Rash's daughter Ellen, and her son's business partner Bobby (also Ellen's fiancé). To give you an idea of Mona's temperament, she may have severed her son's hand from his arm with a cleaver as he was reaching for her beer. At least, that's one story circulating about town to explain his lost appendage. Only the chief's daughter, Ellen, is anywhere near being an attractive persona in this relatively un-comic black comedy. DeVito, who can usually be counted upon to elicit some guffaws, has a remarkably straight and sober role. Curtis is downright unattractive as the promiscuous waitress. Phil, Jeff and Bobby are three of the most forgettable characters ever to adorn the silver screen. Of course, Rash unties the Gordion Knot at the end, and justice is served. But, by that time, I didn't care in the slightest. To be evenhanded, I do recall chuckling maybe twice during the film. I just wish I could remember about what, so I could tell you, dear reader. It was certainly not when Jeff and Bobby, co-owners of failing landscaping business, quarrel over losing a customer because Jeff had purposely run over the client's dog with a power lawnmower. Or, when Mona smacks Phil with an iron frying pan. That just about describes the general tenor of DROWNING MONA.
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