I own over 1,000 movies and Drowning Mona is one of my favorites. It's a dark comedy... which not everyone can appreciate, hence the bad reviews... but the dialog is hysterical and the characters are awesome.Set in the quirky little town of Verplanck, New York... where virtually everyone drives a Yugo with a vanity plate... the movie is filled with odd characters that are the real key to it's overall charm.Bette Midler shines in the role of the recently deceased Mona... a woman with few if any redeeming qualities.Jamie Lee Curtis is sublime in the role of the slutty waitress Rona... complete with mullet and dangling cigarette.Pay attention to the details. That's where some of the best humor lies.If you enjoy dark, tongue-in-cheek, bizarre little comedies, this is your movie.

If you have ever been to the real Verplank, you would know why they picked the name of the town for this story. I grew up in the town next to Verplank. And if any group of sorry trash needed to be ridiculed in a movie, it is Verplank. Too bad they didn't film in the real Verplank. Probably too trashy for the producers. Verplank Does not have the colorful characters found in this movie. The residents lack even the endearing qualities that Mona displays. And even YUGO would be ashamed to be associated with them. Verplank is referred to as the "Point" because it is a point of land in the Hudson river. But in reality, it is a butt. And when I saw the opening credits to this movie I laughed because Verplank had found it rightful place in movie history.

Maybe Danny DeVito and Bette Midler should collaborate more often. The two times they did it was comedy gold. While this movie is not as flat out hilarious as "Ruthless People," it should still be enjoyed by the same people who love that movie. It starts with a prologue stating how Verplanck, New York was the location where they decided to launch the Yugo line of cars in America. As a result, everyone in town, including the police, drives a Yugo car, and they all have catchy license plates like UGOMONA, ELLEEE, and OH RONE.As the title suggests, this black little whodunit concerns who opted to rid the small town of Verplanck of its nastiest inhabitant, the matriarchal hag Mona Dearly (Midler, who chews up every inch of the screen in her "Rashomon"-esque flashback scenes). Police Chief Wyatt Rash (Danny DeVito, playing against type as the straight man), is determined to find out, even if nobody else cares to help. It's come at a bad time, because he's trying to help his daughter Ellie (Neve Campbell) plan her big wedding to mild-mannered land-scaper Bobby Calzone (Casey Affleck), who has just ended up short-handed after his beer-guzzling partner Jeff Dearly (Marcus Thomas, the epitome of slackerdom) takes a leave of absence. Bobby also seems unnaturally concerned with the the death of a woman who meant only bad things for him.The characters, while bordering on cartoons, are played tongue-in-cheek, and you know the actors had fun doing it. There's the chain-smoking waitress Rhona Mace (Jamie Lee Curtis), who's having an affair with the deceased's husband Phil (William Fichtner, who walks away with the movie as a complete scumbag), and Bobby's overbearing brother Murph (Mark Pellegrino). The cops are just as zany, with Peter Coyote as the do-gooder lieutenant, and Paul Ben-Victor and Paul Schulze (Ryan Chapelle from "24") as a couple of bumbling idiots who seem to be good for one thing, looking out for Numbers One. There's Katherine Wilhoite as Lucinda, the lesbian folk-singer mechanic, and the great Tracey Walter is on board as the local fisherman who nobody really knows much about. Add in a foul-mouthed, alcoholic priest, and a funeral director who's also an amateur pornographer (Will Ferrell before he became huge), and it's a feast for those with a twisted sense of humor.

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.