A few badly conceived scenes and misused actors cannot completely negate the positive message of this situation comedy. Diane Keaton deserves better, but lives to laugh another day
Director Callie Khouri teams up with Oscar superstar Diane Keaton in a situation comedy that is all about female empowerment in a man’s world. Downsized by his heartless (male dominated) corporation, white collar worker-bee Don Cardigan (Ted Danson) is reduced to a trembling couch potato, too afraid to tell his wife Bridget (Keaton) their house is on the block. A brief review of their bills shows they are over $200,000 in debt—something has to be done!
This is the first sign that the audience will be asked to suspend some pretty heavy disbelief as this yarn unfolds. More disbelief than in, say, Tom Cruise’ ridiculous vehicle “Mission Impossible”? More than in Clooney’s Ocean whatever? No more than in either of those two films, but looking the other way still gets a little old in this simplistic comedy thriller.
Foundering in the worst of janitorial jobs, liberal arts major Bridget shows she didn’t go to college four years for nothin’ when she hits on a way to steal money from her employer, the Federal Reserve Bank. Mission improbable enough, she teams up with Nina Brewster (Queen Latifah) and Jackie Truman (Katie Holmes) and a plot is born. Sort of.
They switch a padlock and stuff their clothes full of money and walk out, day after day, under the dull and unbelievably incompetent security forces at the Reserve. Eventually they are driving Ferraris and, what do you know, the bank dick gets suspicious. Fun enough, if the viewer simply lets go of reality and takes the ride.
So what happened with Diane Keaton after she split with Woody Allen? One thing for sure, she lost access to a lot of good material, and she is now doing films like this. The feminine empowerment is a worthwhile cause, the industry could use more of it. The problem is that nobody, male or female, with any brains will go see this film. It has soul, the women stick together, and it will get some traction with that. But is that enough?
It is hard to pin down why neither Ted Danson, as the devastated, downsized husband, nor Queen Latifa, the hard working single mom, can find their way to a meaningful performance in the movie. Maybe director Callie Khouri is simply too nice to beat good performances out of them. Maybe she should have written a great screenplay for this group (such as her 1991 Oscar corker “Thelma and Louise”) and found someone else to direct.
In one of the greatest comedic performances ever on TV, Danson played “Cheers” bartender Sam Malone perfectly. Malone was dumb, but he was totally confident---the perfect male stereotype. As a discarded corporate tool Ted lacks both the chance to be egotistical and the chance to be dumb. He is halfway smart and halfway egotistical. The result is as funny as a tax form.
Anybody who saw Queen Latifa belt out her “Strokin’ Mama” in “Chicago” knows she has the stuff. But she doesn’t sing in this film; nor does she get the chance to act. Even so she probably turns out the best performance of the cast as the mom who risks her family and refuses to cave in when the going gets rough.
The same problem exists for Diane Keaton who is supposed to be doing the heavy lifting in this flick. Screenwriting is mostly to blame but there is also the possibility that she simply overwhelms director Khouri, who gives her entirely too much freedom to do what she wants. The result is a mediocre performance to match the mediocre script.
In the end, this film will pay for itself at the shopping malls due to the star power of the cast. It is good humored enough, shows people doing the right thing even when they do the wrong thing and will maybe remind some (dumb) men to take a look at themselves. But as for the great talents lying dormant is this cast, they will have to wait for another day for great performances.
Directed by: Callie Khouri
USA
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