Intermission: Dark comedy fans will enjoy 'Drowning Mona'

"Drowning Mona"

Directed by: Nick Gomez

Starring: Bette Midler, Danny DeVito, Jamie Lee Curtis, Neve Campbell

Rated: R

It was an odd weekend in the film world. Two venerable veterans stepped outside, and decidedly below, their usual form, and one promising young director served up a rather raw dark comedy.

John Schlesinger, with "Midnight Cowboy," "Marathon Man" and many other credits to his name, gave us the totally embarrassing "The Next Best Thing." This film is so misguided it had me wondering whether those two famous reverends (late of political debate) might just be right about their beliefs concerning sexual orientation.

Then Mike Nichols remember "The Graduate," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" or "Carnal Knowledge"? comes along with the stupidest (though most star-studded) comedy of the new millennium in the Gary Shandling vehicle "What Planet Are You From?" Gary Shandling as an alien? Talk about typecasting.

Gary Shandling coming from a planet where they don't have sex? If the whole race is like Gary Shandling, who would have sex? This is the low point of Mike Nichols' long career.

Last (and many might even say least) is something that could possibly have been titled "The Sopranos of Mayberry." "Drowning Mona" is a dark, dark comedy in which the title character, played with vengeance and Halloween looks by Bette Midler, dies in the first 10 minutes of the film.

Don't worry, we get to meet her in a series of twisted flashbacks from the minds of her family and acquaintances. No, not friends, acquaintances. This woman had no friends. Even her own family hated her. Not that they were much better.

Director Nick Gomez has been climbing the ranks of touted young directors lately, although his first film, "Laws of Gravity," came out in 1992. It's a great movie, and one with the minuscule budget of $35,000. Take that, "Blair Witch Project," and take note all young filmmakers trying to do things on the cheap.

Of late, Gomez has been directing for TV. He's done episodes of "Homicide: Life on the Street," as well as several installments of two incredibly good HBO series, "Oz," and "The Sopranos." He brings a bit of the macabre humor of the latter to his work in "Drowning Mona," as well as one of the most obtuse running gags since the heyday of "Green Acres."

The town of Verplanck, N.Y., the film tells us straight off, was a test market for the Yugo. It also tells us, "... but that's a whole other story." No mention is ever made again. Except for the fact that everyone in "Drowning Mona," drives a Yugo, and throughout the film, the camera catches every imaginable angle of this Slavic wonder.

It's in a yellow Yugo (her son's, not the one she owns) that Mona Dearly plunges over a guardrail, into the Hudson river, and drowns. No one, not even her son or husband, seems too upset. In fact, most folks think this is a blessing.

Even Police Chief Rash (Danny DeVito) isn't all that broken up. His biggest concern lies in the fact that it looks like foul play was involved, and a lot of the evidence points towards his son-in-law to be, Bobby, who owns a landscaping service with Mona's son, Jeph. The brakes were tampered with on Mona's (make that Jeph's) car, and both Jeph and his equally sleazy dad keep making remarks insinuating Bobby no doubt had something to do with the "accident."

So, too, believes Bobby's fiance, Ellen (Neve Campbell) who has further complicated matters by announcing she's expecting.

No matter how dark, this is, after all, a comedy, and rarely in comedies do bad things happen to the good guys, so the outcome isn't really a big surprise. The devil is in the details, though.

Other off-kilter Yugo-driving mavens of Verplanck include waitress Rona (Jamie Lee Curtis), who is having an affair with at least one of the Dearly males; Chief Rash's police force, led by a Barney Fife-type gung-ho "lieutenant;" Murph, Bobby's brother, who runs the local watering hole; and Lucinda, the towering gal who owns the auto repair shop. ("We Specialize in Yugos!")

Most critics aren't being too kind to "Drowning Mona," but I enjoyed seeing it. If you don't mind your laughs on the dark side and get a kick out of families that make the Bundys, from "Married, With Children," look like nice neighbors, you'll get some laughs here, too.

(Jim Wunderle works at Associated Video Producers and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.)