One for the Money

One for the Money is one of those movies that I was intrigued by agter seeing the first trailer, especially with it being based on a book series. While I had been intrigued by what the books may be like after seeing the trailer, as the release date got pushed back multiple times the interest in reading the book series or seeing the movie plummeted pretty quickly. One for the Money is the story of Stephanie Plum who after losing her job goes to her cousin's bail bonds business for some available office work only to find out the only available work is in tracking down skippers, and as luck would have it one of the skippers is an old guy she had a romantic encounter with in high school. Unfortunately, for me this fish out of water type story does not work in the end because I found Heigl to play the role too much as an idiot rather then just a simple fish out of water. With all of this I am not sure what made the movie suffer as much as it did, if it was truly the screen play or if it was the casting.

Katherine Heigl in the role of Stephanie Plumwas really lackluster. Everything to me felt off with her performance, while obviously Plum is supposed to be the fish out of water those moments felt so forced from Heigl that it felt overacter. This is the first time I have noticed Heigl doing an accent in a role and her Jersey slang and accent came off like someone trying to be Jersey and not someone that grew up in Jersey. It just did not blend in well that you notice it more then what is taking place on screen. Jason O'Mara as Joe Morelli, the cop accused of murder that Plum is trying to track down is serviceable in the role. O'Mara seems to do all that he ccan with what he is given, his accent actually worked and was not a huge distraction. It is funny all three roles that I have seen him in he has played a cop. For some reason playing a cop just really seems to work for him. The supporting cast including the villians of the movie really left me feeling like something more was lacking. I wanted a little more development from the villians to even Plum's family. I felt that the role of the grandma played by Debbie Reynolds was really left with me wanting more, because I wanted to care more about the characters but I was left longing for more. The character of Ranger is one that I found interesting and I wanted more from his character, simply because the scenes he was in really livened up the movie for those moments. On a side note I think his character and bounty hunts could have made for a much more enteraining and enjoyable movie.

The story for One for the Money just really lacked and did not work for me. the biggest aspect that I think really made the story suffer is from the direction. To me it was clear froom the on set that the director did not have a clear vision to where the movie's story should go. The problem with this is we are not given a clear journey and perpose so the story feels muddled and lost until they go with the typical action inspired story for the last portion of the movie. For me the story in the end bored me simply because it was very predictable, throughout the movie. The key plot of who was setting up Morelli I saw who it would be fairly early on in the movie. The whole conspiracy theory of the story is so played out in my mind and it totally reminded me of the Bounty Hunter, with just a couple tweeks to the story including the gender roles of who was the bounty hunter.

While the story suffered, I was surprised at how much the comedy particularly with Morelli's character made me laugh. His character you liked and yer were unsure if he was being honest about his innocence, it is through the use of the comic moments that his character becomes genuine and believable as to his innocence to the audience. Unfortunately, the comedy did not make up for the ending and even though it was an ending you could see coming I wanted the story to be a little more complex and even be a little less obvious on the villian. I think while the fish out of water did not work, I think it was simply because of the characterization of Plum came off as being an idiot of a bounty hunter. While she did not need to be a bounty hunter like Dog, I wanted to see more of a bounty hunter that has some common sense when going into situations. It was I think her characterization that while everyone knew from the get go that she would end up with Morelli, the chemistry between O'Mara and Heigl was really not there. The chemistry between the two leads is absolutely necessary in a movie, but I just believe that Heigl was flat in her performance and that carried into the chemistry between the leads.

One for the Money was a movie that while it showed a lot of promise at initial trailer realeasings, but I think in the end it fell short because the story lacked a clear vision and was dull, boring and at the same time was so predictable. While I enjoyed O'Mara's portaryal and I liked what he brought to the role I feel that they mscast role or Stephanie Plum. Heigl has given strong performances in some of her past roles, but I just feel like possibly the role did not fit her well. I am giving One for the Money two buckets of popcorn out of five. The big problem is this was written to appeal to a female demographic so it ended up in limbo of being a chick flick or an action movie.

-The Movie Man