This is an enjoyable enough movie to watch. It's not outrageously funny, although it does bring quite a few smiles throughout and more than a few chuckles. Its strengths lay in a very strong cast (headed by Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes and Ted Danson) as well as an intriguing story that is worth watching.
Essentially, Bridget (Keaton) sees her comfortable, upper class life fall apart when her husband (Danson) loses his high paying job and they're left saddled with huge debts. To try to make ends meet, Bridget takes a job as a janitor at the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, and while she works there and watches the operation, she concocts a scheme to rob the place of old money that was about to be shredded. She convinces two co-workers (Latifah and Holmes) to join the plot and the story goes from there. The most interesting part of the movie was watching the various characters react to their new found wealth. Bridget is the cold-blooded one who succumbs to greed. Originally just wanting enough to pay off her debts, once she accomplishes that she wants to keep going. Latifah is the cautious one, constantly warning the others not to spend too much or people will start to wonder. Holmes is the free spirit who seems to want in on this just for the kicks and whose husband (a good performance from Adam Rothenberg) ends up going a bit crazy with the money and gets the IRS suspicious. Danson's character was very interesting. Once he discovered the plot he wasn't enthusiastic but did nothing to stop it, but never seems totally comfortable with it either. All he seems to want to do is go back to work.
The biggest problem for me was the ethical perspective. No one seemed to have any concerns that they were doing anything wrong. There was no real sense of guilt, and there were no particularly serious consequences for anyone, even though they did get caught. In the end the moral of the story seemed to be that if you can get away with it, it's OK. I had a few problems with that. Still, it's fun and a pleasant movie to watch. 6/10
Essentially, Bridget (Keaton) sees her comfortable, upper class life fall apart when her husband (Danson) loses his high paying job and they're left saddled with huge debts. To try to make ends meet, Bridget takes a job as a janitor at the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, and while she works there and watches the operation, she concocts a scheme to rob the place of old money that was about to be shredded. She convinces two co-workers (Latifah and Holmes) to join the plot and the story goes from there. The most interesting part of the movie was watching the various characters react to their new found wealth. Bridget is the cold-blooded one who succumbs to greed. Originally just wanting enough to pay off her debts, once she accomplishes that she wants to keep going. Latifah is the cautious one, constantly warning the others not to spend too much or people will start to wonder. Holmes is the free spirit who seems to want in on this just for the kicks and whose husband (a good performance from Adam Rothenberg) ends up going a bit crazy with the money and gets the IRS suspicious. Danson's character was very interesting. Once he discovered the plot he wasn't enthusiastic but did nothing to stop it, but never seems totally comfortable with it either. All he seems to want to do is go back to work.
The biggest problem for me was the ethical perspective. No one seemed to have any concerns that they were doing anything wrong. There was no real sense of guilt, and there were no particularly serious consequences for anyone, even though they did get caught. In the end the moral of the story seemed to be that if you can get away with it, it's OK. I had a few problems with that. Still, it's fun and a pleasant movie to watch. 6/10