Drowning Mona (2000)

29% of critics liked it
(76 reviews)
39% of users liked it
(14,778 ratings)

Rage, jealousy, murder, and Eastern European automotive engineering combine in this offbeat black comedy. Verplanck, NY, is a small town north of Manhattan that has the dubious distinction of being the Yugo capital of America; the ill-fated import compact was first test-marketed in Verplanck, and… More Rage, jealousy, murder, and Eastern European automotive engineering combine in this offbeat black comedy. Verplanck, NY, is a small town north of Manhattan that has the dubious distinction of being the Yugo capital of America; the ill-fated import compact was first test-marketed in Verplanck, and nearly everyone in town drives one. So no one finds it unusual when a yellow Yugo is seen floating in the river, though seeing someone trapped inside is out of the ordinary. Verplanck's chief of police, Wyatt Rash (Danny De Vito), discovers that the deceased driver was a prominent local citizen, Mona Dearly (Bette Midler), and the evidence suggests that Mona's death was no accident. But the investigation into Mona's murder is hampered by one rather significant detail: nearly everyone in town hated Mona and wanted her dead. She alienated her son Jeff (Marcus Thomas) and his business partner Bobby (Casey Affleck). Bobby's girlfriend Ellen (Neve Campbell) (who is also Rash's daughter) is convinced that Mona would have tried to drive a wedge into their relationship. Mona's husband Phil (William Fichtner) couldn't stand her and fell into an affair with Rona (Jamie Lee Curtis), the waitress at the local diner. And even Rash's sidekick, Deputy Feege (Peter Dobson), spent too much time on the wrong end of Mona's temper to care that she's dead. Before long, the question is no longer who is a suspect, but who isn't? Drowning Mona was directed by Nick Gomez, who earned positive notices for his independent films New Jersey Drive and Illtown. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 35 min.
Directed By: Nick Gomez
Written By: Peter Steinfeld
Genres: Drama, Comedy

In Theaters: Mar 3, 2000 Wide
On DVD: Jul 25, 2000
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Critic Reviews

Gemma Files, Film.com
No kind of triumph of anything over anything.
Jay Carr, Boston Globe
Rudely funny.
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
Too pleased with its own outrageousness.
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
Mona, a screenplay dripping with contempt, gives its cast enough rope and enough bad jokes to make you feel seriously sorry for all of them.
Louis B. Parks, Houston Chronicle
The film is monumentally minor -- you'll hardly remember you saw it a week later.
Tom Long, Detroit News
The cars are the funniest thing in the movie. And really, they're not all that funny.
Nell Minow, Common Sense Media
Talented cast wasted in an awful movie.
Betsy Bozdech, Reel.com
So determined to be wacky and offbeat that it overshoots its goal and winds up cartoonish and ridiculous instead.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Manages to keep up a full head of steam despite repeating the same essential jokes over and over again.
James Sanford, Kalamazoo Gazette
he sort of thing that will probably become a staple on Comedy Central in about five years, resting comfortably alongside such snoozers as "Once Upon A Crime" and "Who's Harry Crumb"...
Chuck Rudolph, Matinee Magazine
In going out of their way to make the characters shocking and graceless, the filmmakers forgot that it's necessary for the audience to enjoy spending time with the characters.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
It broke down like a Yugo.
Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com
Supposed to be dark and mean-spirited, but it never goes beyond a somewhat dark shade of grey.

Read all 13 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

moon r

Borrows a lot from drawing room/dinner theater mysteries because everyone but everyone wants to see the victim dead ... and transports the action to some po-dunk upstate New York town. Alas the scenery change - nor the sad Yugo as the victim of countless sad jokes - can jump start… More
Borrows a lot from drawing room/dinner theater mysteries because everyone but everyone wants to see the victim dead ... and transports the action to some po-dunk upstate New York town. Alas the scenery change - nor the sad Yugo as the victim of countless sad jokes - can jump start the inertia felt here.
Film C

uummm not to shore whether this was good or not really it was vaguly amusing but not much of a story i guess different people have different taste !! give it a go !
Dean M

This dark, tasteless, and cynical comedy is funny as hell, although the suggestively violent segments may repel mainstream viewers. It's a warped murder mystery involving a roster of nitwit suspects so hilariously feeble-minded that they can't help but look guilty...… More
This dark, tasteless, and cynical comedy is funny as hell, although the suggestively violent segments may repel mainstream viewers. It's a warped murder mystery involving a roster of nitwit suspects so hilariously feeble-minded that they can't help but look guilty... particularly since everybody in the entire hamlet of Verplanck, New York, loathed the victim. Peter Steinfeld aptly calls his script a "white-trash <i>Murder on the Orient Express</i>."
Michael G

Admittedly, Drowning Mona has some genuinely hilarious moments. But because 90-95% of it was wandering crap with no focus or point, I can't remember those moments. Or bear to go into any more detail about this movie. If you genuinely love this movie I feel sorry for you.
Cindy I

Watch the trailer instead...it's better. It must be. It convinced me to spend a evening watching this.
Joseph E

I rather drive myself into a lake after seeing this.
Naughtia N

This movie is about Mona who ends up driving her car into a river where she dies. After her death everyone in town becomes a suspect. This movie has a lot of talented actors and they're all combined into this funny and strange comedy movie. Mona is played by Bette Midler and I… More
This movie is about Mona who ends up driving her car into a river where she dies. After her death everyone in town becomes a suspect. This movie has a lot of talented actors and they're all combined into this funny and strange comedy movie. Mona is played by Bette Midler and I can't see how any other actor would have played this part any better because she's obnoxious and annoying and one can't but wonder how people wouldn't want her gone.
Sunil J

A really funny but dark comedy mystery where anyone could have done it.
John A

With the combined star talents of Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Affleck, Neve Campbell and Will Ferrell I was expecting a decent, if mediocre comedy in 'Drowning Mona'. In the end I got a couple of chuckles, nothing more. The film plays out like an… More
With the combined star talents of Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Affleck, Neve Campbell and Will Ferrell I was expecting a decent, if mediocre comedy in 'Drowning Mona'. In the end I got a couple of chuckles, nothing more. The film plays out like an extremely poor attempt at excessive and silly humour, but it comes across as lame, untidy and unfunny. The film recounts the drowning of the titular Mona who drives her car off a cliff, and how each member of the small town might have a part to play in her death. Was it murder, attempted murder or suicide? Frankly, I never cared. Not one part of the script makes you care for any of these characters, or the plot revelations. Everything just unfolds, in a haphazard sort of way, and all you can do is endure. All of the performances are off-key; the only one I would be willing to grant an exception being Neve Campbell's, who is adequate as the ditzy fiancé to her equally bemusing boyfriend. The rest are simply caricatures. A few times I wondered if that may be the point, but there are too many lines that really try for moving dialogue; I couldn't see it. Bette Midler comes across as brash and abrasive, Casey Affleck uncertain and Curtis just speaks her words with a cocky bravado. None of the characters have any redeeming qualities worth mentioning. The only funny jokes that make their way into the screenplay just feel like they belong to a separate picture. 'Drowning Mona' has a major problem with tone; one minute it's a slapstick comedy, the next a B-rate thriller. It moves up and down too frequently, each scene belonging to itself rather than making a complete and cohesive whole. Conclusively, 'Drowning Mona' just doesn't work. I don't hate it, but neither do I appreciate any of its attempts at comedy, right up to the awful wedding finale where the characters briefly reunite over some lousy pop music. (Actually, I do hate that part). The film is immature, crude and dull, full of a bunch of aggravating characters who I wouldn't mind seeing at the bottom of a river either. No investigation necessary. Case closed.