Barnes & Noble

Everyone drives Yugos with personalized license plates in this black-comic hicksville whodunit set in the small town of Verplanck, New York (where "years ago," according to an opening caption, "the Yugo Car Company chose to test market its new breed of vehicle.") Directed by Nick Gomez (Laws of Gravity), the movie begins with the death of the eponymous Mona (Bette Midler), described by one Verplancker as "the worst person I ever knew in my entire life." Police Chief Wyatt Rash (Danny DeVito) then slogs his way through a murder investigation in which the suspects -- pretty much everybody Mona knew, including her husband and son -- seem more inclined to celebrate than to grieve. A sharp supporting cast including Jamie Lee Curtis and Neve Campbell breath dimwitted life into the eccentric townsfolk, but Midler is the main attraction. She appears in numerous flashbacks, all told from various points of view and often contradicting one another, save for their uniform portrayal of Mona's extraordinarily nasty disposition. Gregory Baird

All Movie Guide

Rage, jealousy, murder, and Eastern European automotive engineering combine in this offbeat black comedy. Verplanck, NY, is a small town north of Manhattan that has the dubious distinction of being the Yugo capital of America; the ill-fated import compact was first test-marketed in Verplanck, and nearly everyone in town drives one. So no one finds it unusual when a yellow Yugo is seen floating in the river, though seeing someone trapped inside is out of the ordinary. Verplanck's chief of police, Wyatt Rash (Danny De Vito), discovers that the deceased driver was a prominent local citizen, Mona Dearly (Bette Midler), and the evidence suggests that Mona's death was no accident. But the investigation into Mona's murder is hampered by one rather significant detail: nearly everyone in town hated Mona and wanted her dead. She alienated her son Jeff (Marcus Thomas) and his business partner Bobby (Casey Affleck). Bobby's girlfriend Ellen (Neve Campbell) (who is also Rash's daughter) is convinced that Mona would have tried to drive a wedge into their relationship. Mona's husband Phil (William Fichtner) couldn't stand her and fell into an affair with Rona (Jamie Lee Curtis), the waitress at the local diner. And even Rash's sidekick, Deputy Feege (Peter Dobson), spent too much time on the wrong end of Mona's temper to care that she's dead. Before long, the question is no longer who is a suspect, but who isn't? Drowning Mona was directed by Nick Gomez, who earned positive notices for his independent films New Jersey Drive and Illtown. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 043396050563
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1), Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Pan & Scan, Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital, stereo
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español
• Time: 1:36:00
• Sales Rank: 3,133

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