Where the Money Is
Germany/USA/UK 1999
Reviewed by Kim Newman
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Oregon, the present. Carol, a nurse in a home for senior citizens, cares for Henry Manning, a former bank robber who has been transferred from prison after suffering a stroke. Carol suspects Henry is faking his condition; when taking Henry out on a picnic with her husband Wayne, Carol pushes Henry's wheelchair into the river, forcing him to admit he has been shamming and plans an escape.
When the son of Henry's former criminal partner refuses to hand over his share of the proceeds of former robberies, Carol suggests the three of them team up to rob a bank depository in the area. Henry responds that they should hijack the armoured car which makes cash deliveries to the depository. The three pull off the plan, though Wayne makes a mistake and broods about it, sensing Carol has transferred her allegiance to Henry. When Henry is picked up for transfer to a prison hospital, Carol rescues him. Wayne tries to cut a deal selling Henry out to the police; Carol sides with Henry. Henry and Carol escape the police by driving a car into the river and emerge elsewhere to continue their criminal careers.
Review
This addition to the slim Marek Kanievska filmography comes 13 years after his second directorial credit, the ill-received film of Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero, and 16 years after his acclaimed debut Another Country. Whether he has been toiling all this time on fruitless projects or living out in the woods in Terrence Malick-like seclusion until the memory of Less Than Zero faded is hard to gauge from this entirely acceptable if fairly straight job of work. The sort of modest little film that was a Hollywood staple until the blockbuster era, Where the Money Is still somehow required the services of nine producers and executive producers (including Ridley and Tony Scott) to get made.
Practically a three-hander, the film affords a fine late opportunity for Paul Newman to exert blue-eyed charisma and gravelly charm as the spry senior citizen Henry who fakes drooling insensibility but is secretly scheming all the while, as revealed by a few sharp looks from those extraordinary orbs even as the mouth maintains the proper degree of slackness and the hands shake with directed palsy. Recent Newman vehicles (Nobody's Fool, Twilight) have played with his image, ruefully suggesting that while he may not be the man he was he's still more of a man than most. This amiable caper movie naturally harks back to the days of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973); yet again, the star is the calm-headed heist man who would rather talk his way out of a situation - shaking off a couple of cops by pretending to be a born-again Christian - than use more brutal methods. When accomplice Wayne reaches for the shotgun as a guard is about to stumble on to the robbery scheme, Henry keeps talking and trusts Wayne's wife Carol to get bloodlessly past this obstacle, a neat little suspense scene that also shows how the relationships are changing.
The film also picks up from The Last Seduction by making good use of the too often squandered talents of Linda Fiorentino. Fiorentino's turn isn't a re-run of the criminal mastermind she played in John Dahl's acclaimed neo-noir, but it does call on some of the grit and cool of that role to suggest the inner growth of the kindly but discontented Carol. She also pulls off admirably a growing semi-romantic, semi-daughter-like fixation on Henry, in an amusing but tasteful lap dance and a clever coda which finds her in a jeweller's store, coaxing a clerk into helping her remove her wedding band in celebration of a divorce and also distracting the man while Henry (now posing as her father) can case the merchandise. Dermot Mulroney, stuck with the third-wheel role as Wayne, continues to do the same as he did in Copycat and My Best Friend's Wedding: avoid upstaging the leading lady while making room for character turns that rob him of any pretence at being the leading man.
Where the Money Is remains resolutely a small film, focused on its central trio and their one night of crime to the exclusion of all else. There are nice little cameos from the residents of the old folks' home, but no one really intrudes into the world of Henry, Carol and Wayne. Carol is allowed unbelievable latitude in repeatedly taking a convict out of the home, and a potential major plot thread is left unexplored as the son of Henry's old partner is allowed to get away with stealing the crook's ill-gotten gains. Anonymously set in Oregon so inexpensive Canadian locations can be used, and directed with tact rather than flair, this is a welcome entertainment, effortlessly the best thing its director has done. But Kanievska will have to pick up the pace if he's to establish anything like a career or, better yet, a personality.
Credits
- Director
- Marek Kanievska
- Producers
- Ridley Scott
- Charles Weinstock
- Chris Zarpas
- Christopher Dorr
- Screenplay
- E. Max Frye
- Topper Lilien
- Carroll Cartwright
- Story
- E. Max Frye
- Director of Photography
- Thomas Burstyn
- Editors
- Garth Craven
- Samuel Craven
- Dan Lebental
- Production Designer
- André Chamberland
- Music
- Mark Isham
- ©IMF Internationale Medien und Film GmbH & Co. Prduktions KG
- Production Companies
- Intermedia Films and Pacifica Film Distribution present
- a Scott Free/IMF production
- Executive Producers
- Tony Scott
- Guy East
- Nigel Sinclair
- Chris Sievernich
- Moritz Borman
- Co-producers
- Beau E.L. Marks
- Robert E. Norton
- Line Producer
- François Sylvestre
- Associate Producer
- Hilarie Roope Benz
- Production Co-ordinator
- Robert Boulos
- Unit Production Managers
- Beau E.L. Marks
- Montreal:
- François Sylvestre
- Unit Managers
- Stéphane Fréchette
- 2nd Unit:
- Réjean Bouchard
- Michel Pelletier
- Jim Lévesque
- André Couillard-Després
- Martin LaCroix
- Michel Moreau
- Mélanie Lebel-Morin
- François Des Rochers
- James Irwin
- Christian Pritchen
- Joana Stosik
- Location Manager
- Anita Bensabat
- Location Consultant
- Pierre Blondin
- 2nd Unit Director
- Stan Barrett
- Assistant Directors
- Bettiann Fishman
- Lyda Blank
- Josée LaChance
- Bethan Mowat
- Agniezka Poninska
- Peter Soldo
- 2nd Unit:
- Sean Dwyer
- Marie Cayer
- Continuity
- Supervisor:
- Joanne Tolley Harwood
- 2nd Unit:
- Kathryn Buck
- Casting
- Randi Hiller
- Montreal:
- Elite Casting
- Rosina Bucci
- Mike Bucci
- Voice:
- Bert Sharp
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- John Bartley
- Camera Operators
- Tom Fillingham
- Marvin Midwicki
- Nathalie Moliavko-Visotzky
- 2nd Unit:
- Raymond Brounstein
- Steadicam Operators
- François Daignault
- Brad Hruboska
- Motocam Operator
- 2nd Unit:
- Cotton Mather
- Special Visual Effects
- DigiScope
- Art Director
- Martin Gendron
- Set Designer
- Jean-Pierre Paquet
- Draughtsmen
- Caroline Alder
- Russell Moore
- Costume Designer
- Francesca Chamberland
- Key Make-up
- Gillian Chandler
- Make-up Artists
- Jacques Diamond
- Michel Bertrand
- Key Hairdresser
- Jacquie Rahal
- Hairdressers
- Joelle Monty
- Sandro Di Giancarlo
- Digital Main Title Sequence
- DigiScope
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific Title/Mirage
- Additional Music
- Roger Neill
- Music Performers
- Electronics:
- Mark Isham
- Roger Neill
- Piano:
- Richard Ruttenberg
- Saxophone:
- Sam Sheppard
- Music Supervisors
- Tim Sexton
- Dawn Solér
- Music Co-ordinator
- Karen Kloack
- Music Producers
- Mark Isham
- Roger Neill
- Stephen Krause
- Music Editor
- Tom Carlson
- Music Recordist/Mixer
- Stephen Krause
- Soundtrack
- "You Might Think", "My Best Friend's Girl" - The Cars; "Harleys and Horses" - Ron Keel; "Angel on the Run" - Scott Eversoll; "My Heart Belongs to You" - William Joseph Martin; "Tell Me Some Lies" - Mersh Bros Band; "Lie to Me" - Johnny Lang; "Sexy" - Barry Omarr, Stephen Lang
- Sound Design
- Leslie Shatz
- Sound Recording
- Michel Charron
- Re-recording Mixers
- Leslie Shatz
- Chris David
- Re-recording Engineer
- Michael A. Morongell
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Patrick Dodd
- Dialogue Editor
- Francesca Dodd
- Sound Effects Recording
- Christopher Emerson
- ADR Mixer
- Paul J. Zydel
- Foley
- Artists:
- Margie O'Malley
- Marnie Moore
- Recordist:
- Ben Conrad
- Mixer:
- Frank Rinella
- Technical Advisers
- Barbara Reid
- Antonietta Cocciolo
- Linda Gosselin
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Stan Barrett
- 2nd Unit:
- Mickey Gilbert
- Stanton Barrett
- Film Extract
- The Fan (1996)
- Cast
- Paul Newman
- Henry Manning
- Linda Fiorentino
- Carol
- Dermot Mulroney
- Wayne
- Susan Barnes
- Mrs Foster
- Anne Pitoniak
- Mrs Tetlow
- Bruce MacVittie
- Karl
- Irma St. Paul
- Mrs Galer
- Michel Perron
- guard
- Dorothy Gordon
- Mrs Norton
- Rita Tucket
- Mrs Weiler
- Diane Amos
- Kitty
- Dawn Ford
- Cheryl, wife 2
- T.J. Kenneally
- Farwell Welk
- Roderick McLachlan
- Lloyd, the cop
- Bill Corday
- grounds worker
- Gordon McCall
- handyman
- Robert Brewster
- Eric Hoziel
- guys
- Charles Doucet
- Tom
- Arthur Holden
- Bob
- Frank Fontaine
- cop
- Richard Jutras
- manager
- Janine Thériault
- girl 1
- Frankie Faison
- security guard
- Philip Preten
- cop 2
- Vlasta Vrana
- jewelry store employee
- Heather Hiscox
- TV announcer
- Michael Brockman
- FBI agent
- Emily Wachtel
- waitress
- Jayne Eastwood
- Connie
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Warner Bros Distributors (UK)
- 7,956 feet
- 88 minutes 24 seconds
- Dolby Digital
- Colour by
- DeLuxe Laboratories