Watch Where the Money Is For Free

Too much of everything

A Disappointing Continuation

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Where The Money Is turns out to be a very weak and slightly impossible vehicle for Paul Newman to carry with his talent. It was not one of his better career choices for a role.Newman who was 76 when he made this film plays an aging bank robber who was transferred from state prison where he had a stroke and is now in a regular old age nursing facility. His assigned nurse Linda Fiorentino doesn't believe he's as sick as he makes out and she eventually finds out her suspicions are correct. How she does it you have to see the film for.But when she does it she's just intrigued by the rogue life Newman has led. Life for her as the prom queen who married football hero Dermot Mulroney has turned really dull. Linda needs some excitement. She should just have let Newman go his merry way and played dumb when the authorities would have asked her did she suspect anything. But she doesn't, in fact she plans a caper and actually gets Mulroney roped into it as well.After this the film becomes just way too preposterous for my taste. Newman's role essentially is Butch Cassidy or Henry Gondorff now as a senior citizen and he does well, but his talent just does not carry an incredibly preposterous story to success.Paul Newman had some good roles late in his career like Twilight, Road To Perdition, and Message In A Bottle. But this one in no way stacks up to those films, let alone the things he did in his prime.

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.

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw "Where The Money Is" because I didn't hear much about it. "Where The Money Is" happened to be one of the most enjoyable films I've seen all year. I knew I could count on Paul Newman to deliver a top notch performance as he has done in the past.Newman led a talented cast, which included Dermot Mulroney and Linda Fiorentino. These three are on a mission to pull off a bank job. It is not as simple as we think; Newman, a master bank thief, has been remanded to a hospital after suffering a stroke (or is it). This is where he meets a nurse who is sees through his charade and wants in on the action. The stakes have risen when the nurse's husband gets wrangled into the bank job."Where The Money Is" played to everybody's funny bone because Newman gives one of his most engaging performances. The one aspect of the film I enjoyed the most was Newman's captivating presence on screen with each scene he was in. He pulled the audience in with his charm and made them a part of a film.Though the plot has been done before in other movies, the way it was performed left me breathless because it is so unique. I have to give credit to Fiorentino and Mulroney because they play off Newman very well."Where The Money Is" is captivating as it is funny. When you add Paul Newman's humor and comedy with great support from Linda Fiorentino and Dermot Mulroney you have a rousing success in "Where The Money Is."

This movie had some real laughs here and there, but the caper itself was merely competent, and seemed foregone. As much as I love Paul Newman and Linda Fiorentino, I just couldn't bring myself to care about their characters. If you're looking for a caper with comedy to spare, try the much maligned Hudson Hawk.