Where the Money Is (2000)

the audience applauded

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Henry Manning is a legendary bank robber.He ends up in a nursing home after a massive stroke.Nurse Carol Ann McKay starts to suspect Henry isn't as sick as he seems.Soon those two, with Carol's husband Wayne, are planning a robbery of an armored money transport.Where the Money Is (2000) is directed by Marek Kanievska.Ridley and Tony Scott are two of the producers.Paul Newman is brilliant as Henry.Without his performance this would be a much more mediocre film.But it's also a treat to watch Linda Fiorentino playing Carol.Dermot Mulroney is also very good as Wayne.It's pretty unbelievable to watch those three do their heist.The way Paul's character turns himself into someone he's not.This movie is very entertaining, plus it has Paul Newman in it.A totally positive movie experience.

For a moment you'd feel that this movie is all about nothing. But fortunately it isn't.Here, I preferred Paul Newman's Henry Manning over his Henry Gondorff back in The Sting (1973). True that it seems as ordinary flick, with the word TV written all over it (frankly I thought many times about the irony between the 18 million dollar budget and the 5 and a half million gross !). Though, it is a fine entertaining movie, for me, more than that Oscar winning movie of the 1970s.I liked Linda Fiorentino's both role and performance. She made it well as sensitive, hot and most of all understanding her character not as a lover of the old man, but a mentor's pupil. Just notice her eye look whenever she's with Newman; she's hungry for his brilliance so his experience.The thing about this movie is all in the last 15 minutes, not with the clever twists but where the meaning completes clearly. The movie's world centers around dead people (the old folks), live people but subsist as dead (the married young couple), and one truly live man (the master thief). The whole story is about the journey of these 2 love birds through the vivid world of this thief. And who'd have the ability to stand it and continue living it as it should : daringly and smartly. Because outside this way you'd be either a cowered or a loser (both dead anyway). So where is the money ? As the last shot tells us : It's where the guts, and the lust for life is.I believe Newman was one of the best actors who could portray this latent passionate love for life or precisely being alive. Observe him driving his car at the end chase, Oh God ! This 75 year old guy, who's originally famous of riding speed cars, seemed really convincing, mastering his moves as a wild heart of a man. This is so simple; just a solid heist with a point of view about life. Yes, again and again the genre movie can carry out messages. So…what could be missing ? Maybe more good music score. And that's it.For the fans of the heist movies only : besides (Where the Money Is), 2000 got others such as (Reindeer Games) and (The Opportunists). Before a revival would come with the whole next decade along with 2001's Ocean's Eleven and many more.

Two days ago, one of the greatest actors of all time left this life. Paul Leonard Newman was best known for films like "Hud", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Verdict". But he also starred in small, less noticed movies over the years. One example is "Where the Money Is". Newman plays an aged crook who moves into a nursing home where it becomes clear to the woman (Linda Fiorentino) running the place that he's not as disabled as he claims to be and might in fact be looking for help in pulling off another heist.OK, so an elderly criminal going in for one last scheme is sort of a hackneyed plot. But in this role, Newman doesn't even need to talk much; it seemed to me as if his eyes functioned as actors. Not to mention that there's some great chemistry between him and Fiorentino. This might not be the most noticeable movie, but it's worth seeing, if only once. There will never be another Paul Newman.Also starring Dermot Mulroney.

There are some strong points to this movie. It features a very good cast (Paul Newman, Linda Fiorentino and Dermott Mulroney are the leads) and at 1:28 the story is relatively fast-paced and never bogs down. It's even a relatively interesting concept about a man who pulls off an escape from prison by pretending to have had a stroke and who becomes involved in a scheme for a bank heist with the nurse at the nursing home he's sent to and her husband. But there are also problems here.It's billed as a "Drama/Comedy". The problem is that as a drama it's not particularly dramatic, and as a comedy it's not particularly funny. It also leaves far too many things unexplained in my opinion. Why was Carol Ann (Fiorentino) so enamoured with Henry (Newman) from the time of his arrival in the nursing home? What about him made her suspect he was faking? There's nothing overt in the story that made it obvious. And how would Henry have managed to fake a stroke for - was it two and a half years - without getting caught once? And - without getting too crude - faking a stroke through that lap dance Fiorentino offered him would have been a difficult job. That strikes me as unbelievable in the extreme. The whole armoured car heist also seemed to go down much too easily.Frankly, it has more weaknesses than strengths. It isn't a really bad movie, just a sadly medicore one (sad largely because of the potential in cast and story I mentioned to start with.) It's worth a look-see, but don't expect greatness.4/10