“Mad Money”- Joanna Langfield reviews
No, its not a great movie, but three indestructible stars still make this formulaic heist movie pay off, at least a little bit. Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes team up as three Federal Reserve sanitation workers far more deserving than their circumstances. Knowing that, they cook up an impossible to crack plan that will fill their personal coffers and not really cost anyone else a thing. Or does it?
Callie Khouris no stranger to female felons ferocious heroines. She is, after all, the woman who wrote the seminal Thelma and Louise. But, as the director here, shes all about the big softness of the picture, happily skipping over the very real harder edges. Cute or not, these women are thieves. Sure, its cool that Keatons cushy housewife steps up when her big-buck earning husband is downsized. The facts that shes so unaware of their borrowed upon circumstances and her ill-prepared for the workplace state are potentially interesting, but, no fears, we get rid of those pesky backstories in a hurry. Latifahs determined devotion to her single motherhood is unexamined, to say the least, and Katies ditsy brilliance is nothing more than a footnote. This one is all about the steal of the deal. Given what the focus is, there is some reward for us, the morally plagued audience. Each actress has a few minutes to do some funny, charming work and, that, all by itself, is reward onto itself.
