Pluskylang Great Film overall

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Syl Mona Dearly of upstate New York was a housewife and mother of a son played by none other than Bette Midler. She was married to Phil (played by the wonderful William Fichtner) Mona was abusive, mean, and probably the most disliked person in the small town. Her husband claimed to have been battered man. Watching Mona in action, you can understand his claims. Her husband Phil is having an affair with a diner waitress Rona, played by the wonderful Jamie Lee Curtis, who is also having an affair with Phil and Mona's son at the same time It's like a Jerry Springer episode at times. Neve Campbell plays Ellen who is engaged to Calzone, Casey Affleck's character, and is pregnant. Her father is played by the wonderfully talented Danny DeVito as the town Sheriff. There are other characters like lesbian Lucina who comforts Ellen with a kiss. The writing is fair to say the least. The cast look like they are having the time of their lives on screen and it comes across off screen as well.

zardoz-13 Any movie that kills off Bette Midler in the first reel can't be all bad. Unfortunately, "Laws of Gravity" director Nick Gomez's "Drowning Mona" makes the fatal mistake of letting her abrasive mommie dearest villainess encore in the flashbacks. Bette has seen better days and better movies, such as "The Rose" and "Ruthless People." Nevertheless, this low-brow, blue-collar, white-trash whodunit looks like a soggy retread of Billy Crystal's "Throw Momma From the Train," also starring Danny DeVito, where veteran battle axe actress Anne Ramsey took top honors as a malicious mom. Appreciating the tacky humor in this cheesy comedy requires an abysmal lack of taste."Be Cool" scenarist Peter Steinfeld scrapes the bottom of the barrel for buffoonery. The antics that unfold after a town of clueless cretins realizes that Mona Dearly didn't commit suicide when she plunged her automobile, a Yugo, into the Hudson River are mind-numbingly moronic. The town's lesbian mechanic, Lucinda (Kathleen Wihoite of "Nurse Betty"), shows Police Chief Wyatt Rush (Danny DeVito of "The Rainmaker") that somebody tampered with Mona's brakes. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that Mona's murder was a mistake or who tops the list as the prime suspect. Needlessly, Steinfeld complicates this murder mystery the same way that Agatha Christie did "Murder on the Orient Express." Chief Rash's problem is that everybody in the small Hudson Valley hamlet of Verplanck, New York, hated Mona. Even his own daughter, Ellen (Neve Campbell of "Wild Things"), implicates herself when she sings "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead!" Few of "Mona's" characters, except for Devito's amiable but pint-sized Andy of Mayberry cop, rate any sympathy. First, Mona herself is as obnoxious as an ogre. She chopped off the hand of her own son, Jeff (Marcus Thomas of "Cowboy Up"), when he tried to take a swig of her beer! Rumors about how Jeff lost his hand will either horrify you or have you howling in hilarious agony. Second, Jeff deserved his misfortune. As a partner in a local landscaping outfit, he sabotaged it by running their lawn mower over a customer's pet pooch. No, they don't show the poor dog getting ground down. Third, fearing the wrath of Mona, Jeff's wimpy partner, Bobby Calzone (Casey Affleck of "Gone, Baby, Gone"), doesn't have the guts to fire him. Fourth, Mona's own adulterous hubby, Phil Dearly (William Fichtner of "Armageddon"), complains about spousal abuse. In a cartoonish fit of rage, Mona brains him with a frying pan when she learns about his extramarital affair with a slutty waitress, Rona Mace (Jamie Lee Curtis of "Halloween"), at the local diner. Later, we learn that Rona has been banging Jeff, too! Nick Gomez, who also helmed "New Jersey Drive," lacks the knack for comedy. "Drowning Mona" tanks a quality cast as quickly as a Yugo can sink. The best joke here is that Verplanck, New York, served as a test market for Yugos, so everybody tools around in them, even the cops! Despite all its stars, "Downing Mona" deserves only one star for its rating.

shaman1969 Drowning Mona would have to be one of the best comedies I have seen in a long time. I watched it on TV late one night and I really enjoyed it. It has a great cast with Danny Devito,Jamie Lee Curtis,Bette Midler and Neve Campbell.Most comedies these days seem to have to rely on smutty jokes and coarse language to be funny(ie American Pie) but this didn't.Don't get me wrong I am not knocking American Pie because I love that movie.Drowning Mona reminded me very much of the eighties dark comedies Ruthless People which also starred Danny Devito and Bette Midler and Throw Momma From The Train.It wasn't as funny as those but it was along the same line.I loved Bette Midler in Outrageous Fortune and Ruthless People and I thought she was great in this too even though she only played a relatively small role.I cant understand why so many people slam this movie.It is entertaining,funny,well acted and it is also a good murder mystery.

fedor8 Worth a few chuckles, but the film basically tries too hard to be a quirky, clever little cult comedy. Fichtner gets the best lines ("Of course you don't, I mean you do", "Yes, I was a battered husband", and another one, I forgot which), while De Vito, who is potentially the funniest in the cast, plays the straight man, which is a mistake. Instead of making him the straight man, they should have done that with Casey Affleck (Ben's wimpy brother) who comes off unfunny every time he appears in a comedic scene.The cast doesn't thrill me. There is Bette Midler, who used to be funny, while in this movie she just snarls and growls. But the absolute pits is Jamie Lee Curtis who is so ugly that I literally had to turn my head away in some scenes she was in. I mean, she has always been one of Hollywood's ugliest women (great body notwithstanding), but in this movie she even makes Laura Dern look like a woman to desire. I don't understand why they gave her that damn awful haircut - as if she weren't repulsive enough as it is! And Casey Affleck, of course, is quite untalented and bland, and a very strong argument why Hollywood should finally do the world a favour and OUTLAW NEPOTISM.If you'd like to see my Hollywood Nepotism List, with over 350 pictures/entries, contact me by e-mail.