
Queen Latifah, Diane Keaton and Katie Holmes make an unlikely team of bank robbers in the comedy caper
Mad Money directed by Callie Khouri from a screenplay by Glenn Gers. In fact, everything about this film can be neatly summed up with the word ‘unlikely’. The set up, the characters, the dialogue, and the finale – every inch of this film screams for that ‘unlikely’ label. And not even the charming Queen Latifah can bring this tepid comedy to life.
The Story
The Cardigans are used to a cushy lifestyle, but that all changes when Don (Ted Danson) loses his job and the pile of bills overtakes the funds in their bank accounts. Bridget (Keaton) is stunned to learn they’re now $268,000 in debt with no income coming in and no real prospects on the horizon. The final straw is a bounced check to their maid. Not only will the upper-class Bridget have to do her own dishes, she’ll also have to find employment or risk a life on the streets.
Fortunately, the maid turns Bridget on to a position with the Federal Reserve Bank. Bridget can’t use a computer and has no real employable skills, but apparently she is talented enough to be hired as a janitor. Almost immediately upon accepting the job, she figures out a way to rob the place. No one else has ever done it, but Bridget comes up with a plan seemingly within hours of being on the job. Yeah, right…
Her plan won’t work without two of her fellow employees joining in, and, of course, she easily finds two suckers ready to rip off the Federal Reserve Bank. Her first co-conspirator is Nina (Queen Latifah), a single mom with two young boys, who has the job of actually shredding cash that’s been pulled from circulation due to its condition. The final member of the trio to sign on is Jackie (Holmes), an annoyingly fidgety person whose job it is to push around a cart loaded with cash. Together they steal a tidy sum of money not once, not twice, but for so long that their co-workers would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to catch on to their shenanigans. What started out as simple plan to relieve a few debts winds up being a cash cow they can’t stop milking. But crime doesn’t pay, right? Oh yes it does in this implausible, improbable, and silly film.