Smiling as the ship goes down.
A quick review for a film that is built around a script as flimsy and flawed as the titular residence into which Walter (Tom Hanks) and Anna (Shelley Long) move after they are summarily turfed from their cosy New York apartment.
Walter is an entertainment lawyer, meaning he deals with slobby rock groups, prima donnas and egomaniacal recording artists. This is touched upon in the early goings but never really capitalized on for the remainder of the film until the same characters are wheeled out for the obligatory happy ending (you had a quarter of a century to watch this film, sorry if that was a spoiler). Anna is a classical violinist and ex-wife of vain and arrogant womanizer Max (Karl from Die Hard).
The duo are apparently broke and suddenly homeless when Max turns up unannounced to reclaim his plush apartment leaving them scurrying for a home. The lack of funds seems strange given that one is a lawyer to the stars and the other is a world renowned musician, but this is a n 80s movie built around the physical comedy of Tom Hanks and the likability of both leads, and little more.
Upon finding what appears at first glance the property buy of the century Walter and Anna move in, only to find that from practically the first minute things start going wrong. And never stop until they realize that it isn’t just repairs that this lemon needs, but a rebuild from the inside out.
From this point it is sight-gag after sight-gag, with every tradesman either mildly psychotic, mildly retarded, or both, and everything that could possibly go wrong does. And then some. With practically every dollar having already been invested in the initial purchase the vast repairs and renovations swiftly put even more pressure on the purse-strings, which inevitably leads to Walter and Anna’s once golden relationship becoming somewhat frayed at the edges. This is only exacerbated once Max returns to Anna’s side to express his desire to get back together – even if only for a few minutes.
The Money Pit was released in the mid 80s when a friendly face on the poster was apparently enough to greenlight a film if you had a decent concept to run with. Ultimately The Money Pit shows that Tom Hanks and Shelley Long are indeed friendly faces, and that Tom Hanks had undoubted skills as a physical comedian in his youth, but apart from one notable setpiece involving the destruction of a large portion of the house including vast tracts of scaffolding due to Walter’s clumsiness, The Money Pit stands as little more
than a reminder that Once Upon A Time you didn’t need endless dick jokes and/or
Adam Sandler to make a comedy.
Final Rating – 6 / 10. Moderately amusing. Instantly forgettable star vehicle for Hanks and Long. At least one of them went on to forge a career. Guess which one?
