
“The death of Mona Dearly wasn't so much a whodunnit, as a who didn't.”
A Sheriff investigating the murder of an upstate New York woman learns that her extremely hateful ways gave the whole town a motive to be rid of her.
Release Date: 3/3/2000
Runtime: 96 minutes
Languages: English
Director: Nick Gomez
Budget: $6.0M
Revenue: $15.4M
Companies: Neverland Films, Code Entertainment, Jersey Shore
Countries: United States of America
r96sk
<em>'Drowning Mona'</em> is funny viewing. A great time was had watching. It's an amusing flick and also a smart one, I really enjoyed the use of flashbacks (especially with the unreliable pov aspect) in particular. Each character has their own personality trait too, which is nice. I do like this humour, which is quite dry and almost deadpan - right up my alley. The music is good as well, particularly towards the end with the usage of "Popcorn" and "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag". Pacing-wise it's spot on, what with its brisk run time of 90 minutes. The cast list is top, everyone onscreen does great work here. Danny DeVito is more laidback than usual, I'm unsure if I like him as such but the low energy trait works because each character, as noted already, has their own schtick so I didn't question it all that much to be honest. Casey Affleck's bumbling Bobby is good, that word couldn't be used to describe his trim though... that's a wig, right?! William Fichtner, Marcus Thomas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Neve Campbell and Bette Midler play their parts to a strong standard. Will Ferrell and Melissa McCarthy appear too! A bit of a hidden gem, this. That's strange given those on the cast. Looks like I might be in the smaller section of (the small in itself) audience that highly enjoyed this one. Admittedly, the general view seems to be that it's passable at worst. Either way: recommended!

Danny DeVito
Chief Wyatt Rash

Bette Midler
Mona Dearly

Neve Campbell
Ellen Rash

Jamie Lee Curtis
Rona Mace

Casey Affleck
Bobby Calzone

William Fichtner
Phil Dearly

Marcus Thomas
Jeff Dearly

Peter Dobson
Lt. Feege Gruber

Kathleen Wilhoite
Lucinda

Tracey Walter
Clarence

Will Ferrell
Cubby

Paul Ben-Victor
Deputy Tony Carlucci
2023