Movie Review - 'Mad Money'

Mad Money

Starring Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, and Katie Holmes
Directed by Callie Khouri
Rated PG-13

Honestly, who hasn’t thought about it at least once? Who hasn’t walked into a bank, checked out where the security cameras are located, and wondered how they’d get away with it and for how long?

That dirty little secret everyone shares is a huge chunk of the appeal for Mad Money, which is a fun, lighthearted take on the inside job. Bridget (Diane Keaton) is a suburban housewife whose husband (Ted Danson) lost his white collar upper management job just in time for the couple’s extravagant means to put them $280,000 in debt. The employment she can find with benefits is on the janitorial staff at the Federal Reserve Bank.

You can probably figure out what happens next, even if the how requires some explaining. Bridget meets fellow 9-to-5ers Nina (Queen Latifah) and Jackie (Katie Holmes), and the scheme is set into motion. Unlike the majority of heist movies, there’s very little technology involved in the commission of the crimes. In fact, all that’s required is a Master lock and worn-out dollar bills in various denominations ready to be shredded and discarded.

Even the coolest of bank robbing flicks face a huge obstacle of incomprehensibility; the silliest example is lifting an entire building in Ocean’s 12. The distinction here is that Mad Money isn’t trying to be a cool bank robbing flick at all. It’s trying to be anything but cool, and in a weird way, it succeeds. After all, the mastermind behind this fiendish plot wears white pantsuits and pearls to her job cleaning out toilets. The notion is a bit hackneyed but not enough to derail the proceedings entirely.

Though Mad Money certainly won’t be one of the best movies of the year, it has its strong points. The entire cast is likable and believable, from Keaton, Holmes and the Queen to Danson and Stephen Root, best known as Milton from Office Space, here hamming it up as the chief security officer for the bank.

And Mad Money is a complete film, albeit one that doesn’t aim too high. There aren’t too many lulls, there are no characters that don’t fit with the other pieces of the puzzle, and the story doesn’t outthink itself. It achieves all of this despite lackluster trailers and the desire to throw stones at anything from the TomKat empire. That really is some sleight of hand.