Mad Money.

"In the breezy, amoral heist comedy Mad Money, Fun With Dick and Jane meets 9 to 5 on the way to recession," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "If this uncomfortably timely movie lacks the political bite of the first and the cozy star chemistry of the second, it sputters to fitful life in the crooked grin of Diane Keaton, whose character, Bridget Cardigan, an upper-middle-class homemaker in suburban Kansas City, Mo, develops an insatiable lust for larceny."

Updated through 1/20.

"There's something nicely satirical about the way that Bridget feels absolutely entitled to all this money - as if no jury in the world would possibly convict her of doing everything she can to avoid giving up her cushy upper-middle-class lifestyle," writes Paul Matwychuk. "I'm not sure the movie notices the joke, though - when Bridget and Don are almost brought to tears by the thought of having to live in an apartment and smell other people's cooking, director Callie Khouri shoots the scene in a way that suggests she's on their side."

"The big problem with Mad Money is not that the situation is implausible - this is a caper; it's supposed to be over the top - it's that it doesn't do the work necessary to con us into believing it," writes Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times.

"And there are montages. Lots and lots of montages," adds Ruth Graham in the New York Sun.

"The scheme works for a while. Sadly, the movie never does," writes Keith Phipps at the AV Club.

"I can't discern any real reason for Mad Money to exist, other than as a vehicle for three appealing actresses, Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes," writes Salon's Stephanie Zacharek. "And if this is the best they can get, then what, exactly, are the privileges of stardom?"

Mad Money is "the second comedy in a row - on the heels of last year's embarrassing Because I Said So - to waste the prodigious comedic talents of Diane Keaton," sighs Alonso Duralde at MSNBC.

"[W]hile it's all so breezy and zippy and girl-power peppy, it's Keaton who makes Mad Money worth a few bucks," writes Robert Wilonsky in the Voice.

"Keaton can't help turning up the volume of her 'plucky' persona - most likely to drown out the gaspings of a thin script by Fracture screenwriter Glenn Gers," writes Deborah Day for Premiere.

"We would all like to think that Diane Keaton is more than just hats and belts and Woody Allen jokes, that she's a person with dignity, a person who's learned from herself, a person who wouldn't subject herself, and the audience she's built, to flaming piles of crap, but Mad Money is a flaming pile of crap," writes Christopher Frizzelle in the Stranger.

Update, 1/20: Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times on Keaton's career: "We want to see what's happened to Annie Hall since we met her in 1977, when she was wearing men's ties and vests and venturing out on her own for the first time to pursue a singing career and see where life took her."

Posted by dwhudson at January 18, 2008 9:20 AM