Drowning Mona is a 2000 American crime comedy film starring Danny DeVito as Wyatt Rash, a local police chief from Verplanck, New York, who investigates the mysterious death of Mona Dearly (Bette Midler), a spiteful, hard-drinking, loud-mouthed, abusive woman, hated by all who knew her, who drove her son s car off a cliff and drowned in a river. The film received negative reviews from critics.

Plot

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Mona Dearly can t unlock her car so, as her keys fit her son s Yugo, she takes that and drives off. On a bend, the brakes fail completely and she drives off a cliff into the Hudson River. Clarence, fishing in the river, sees it happen. Chief Wyatt Rash observes there are no skid marks on the road.

Her long-suffering husband Phil and son Jeph, show no grief when learning of Mona s death, an abusive, belligerent heavy drinker, loved by none. (Jeph is more concerned about his car.)

Ellie Rash (Wyatt s daughter) wants to celebrate as the Dearlys treated Bobby (her fiancé and Jeph s business partner) badly. JB Landscaping is not doing well due to Jeph s laziness and poor behavior.

Phil and Rona, who are having an affair, meet at the Charm Motel. He expresses happiness about Mona s death but denies involvement. Bobby meets Murph, his older brother, who has been helping him financially. Murpf suspects he had a hand in Mona s death.

Wyatt s investigation takes him to Jeph, who claims that Bobby threatened and attacked Mona. Lucinda, the local mechanic specializing in Yugos (driven by everyone in town) informs Wyatt that the car Mona was driving had been tampered with in multiple ways.

Phil tells Wyatt he had been a battered husband, as Mona suspected he was having an affair. He also claims Jeph and Mona had had an argument on the evening before the accident. Bobby tells Wyatt he hated Mona and that they had had an argument over Jeph s pay. She would not let him dissolve the partnership unless Bobby bought them out. Phil and Jeph leave Mona s wake very early.

Meanwhile, Wyatt breaks into the Dearlys , finding that Mona s and Jeph s car keys had been switched. Phil expresses his gratitude to Bobby for killing Mona. Bobby then confesses to Ellie that he rigged Jeph s car, as Jeph was destroying their business. She then announces she is pregnant. Clarence overhears their conversation.

Phil tells Wyatt he spotted Bobby near the Dearly residence on the night before the accident, claiming that he did not say this earlier because Wyatt and Bobby wil soon be family. Jeph, who is also involved with Rona, finds out about Phil s affair with her. Bobby tells Wyatt that Mona threatened him, not the other way around, and that he was in the Hideaway the evening before the accident, which Valerie tells him is not true. Murph later tries to cover Bobby on this. Valerie also gives him a sharp gardening tool with the letters JB on it.

Phil is found dead in a pond at the Charm Motel. Murph tells Ellie, who fears that Bobby, who left their house that night, did it. When Rona finds out, she tries to leave town. It turns out Jeph did not help Phil when he fell into the water after he threatened to expose him, Rona, and Bobby.

Police learn that Jeph is threatening suicide because of Rona s leaving. He reveals that a drunken Mona had unrepentantly chopped off his hand when they fought over a bottle of beer. He also states that Phil was not his biological father, adding that, despite all that, he did not kill either of them. Wyatt manages to take the gun away from Jeph.

Wyatt then tells Bobby privately that Clarence confessed to killing Phil, because he could not stand the idea of Bobby going to jail with the baby on the way. Clarence was watching Phil – who had seen Bobby rig the car – tampering with it some more and then switching the keys in the house. Bobby s initial tampering had been superficial and did not contribute to the accident, whereas Phil s did.

Wyatt promises Bobby to keep quiet about Bobby s involvement as long as he takes good care of Ellie and the baby. Finally, Bobby and Ellie get married and Clarence gets taken away.

Cast

• Danny DeVito as Chief Wyatt Rash
• Bette Midler as Mona Dearly
• Neve Campbell as Ellen Ellie Rash
• Jamie Lee Curtis as Rona Mace
• Casey Affleck as Bobby Calzone
• William Fichtner as Phil Dearly
• Marcus Thomas as Jeph Dearly
• Peter Dobson as Lt. Feege Gruber
• Kathleen Wilhoite as Lucinda
• Mark Pellegrino as Murph Calzone
• Tracey Walter as Clarence
• Will Ferrell as Cubby, the Funeral Director
• Paul Ben-Victor as Deputy Tony Carlucci
• Paul Schulze as Deputy Jimmy D.
• Melissa McCarthy as Shirley
• Brian Doyle-Murray as Tow Truck Driver
• Raymond O Connor as Father Tom
• Lisa Rieffel as Valerie Antonelli

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 29% based on 76 reviews, and an average rating of 4.41/10. The critical consensus reads, A whodunnit that stacks its list of suspects with wasted character actors, Drowning Mona is a twee farce that will prompt audiences to tune out before the mystery is solved.

Box office

The film opened at #4 at the North American box office making $5.8 million USD in its opening weekend behind My Dog Skip, The Next Best Thing and The Whole Nine Yards. Ultimately, however, the box office gross was an impressive $15.9 million compared with a budget of $6 million.

Awards and nominations

Nominations

• ALMA Awards: Outstanding Director of a Feature Film (Nick Gomez)

Year	2000
ReleaseDate	2000-03-03
RuntimeMins	96
RuntimeStr	1h 36min
Plot	When a woman drives a car into the river to her death, everyone in town becomes a suspect.
Awards	Awards, 1 nomination
Directors	Nick Gomez
Writers	Peter Steinfeld
Stars	Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Neve Campbell
Produced by	Al Corley,Danny DeVito,Eugene Musso,Bart Rosenblatt,Michael Shamberg,Stacey Sher,Jonathan Weisgal
Music by	Michael Tavera
Cinematography by	Bruce Douglas Johnson
Film Editing by	Richard Pearson
Casting By	Monika Mikkelsen
Production Design by	Richard Toyon
Set Decoration by	Karen Agresti
Costume Design by	Terry Dresbach
Makeup Department	Patricia Almeida,Merc Arceneaux,Thomas R. Burman,Keith Christiansen,Bari Dreiband-Burman,Audrey Futterman-Stern,Angela Johnson,Eryn Krueger Mekash,Thomas Opitz,Denise Pugh-Ruiz,Robert Ramos,Carol Strong,Eugenia Weston,Victoria Wood,Eden Orfanos
Production Management	Spike Allison Hooper,Douglas Jones,Bart Rosenblatt
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Carol D. Bonnefil,Stacey Holmes,Wendi Lampassi,Maura Naughton,John Nelson,Ross Novie
Art Department	Maurice Austin,Erik Berentsen,Sharleen Bright,Scott Buckwald,Robert Cardillo,Ron Churchman,David W. Clark,Sam Dean,Andrea Dietrich,Kirk Essiambre,Steven E. Eyrse,J.M. Finholt,Dorit Hurst,Betty Krul,Christian Lopez,Robert A. Maisto,Kenny Minster,Jessica Otto,Elizabeth A. Parks,Nya Patrinos,Sarah Polley,Andrew L. Rael,Steve Salazar,Athenaia Spiliotakos,Scott B. Valdes,Freddy Waff,Michael P. Walsh,Rick Belosic,Stephen McCumby,Bart Sullivan
Sound Department	Mary Andrews,Jamie Baker,Andrew Bock,Frank Bradley,Evan T. Chen,Marty Church,Lawrence L. Commans,Ken Dufva,Jeff Enden,David Lee Fein,Christopher Flick,Donald Flick,Patrick Giraudi,Ernest Jow,Jeff Kushner,Samuel Lehmer,Kate Lumpkin,Mark McBryde,Ryan Murphy,Ed Novick,Bryan Pennington,Jeffrey Perkins,Tim Rakoczy,Jason Rau,Mary Ruth Smith,David E. Stone,Kelly Vandever,Mark Weingarten,Frank Bradley,Mark DeSimone
Special Effects by	Bill Cochran,John C. Hartigan,David Waine
Visual Effects by	Michael Adkisson,Tom Gorey,Kentaro Isobe,Bruce Douglas Johnson,Douglas G. Johnson,Adam Stern,Jim Towler,Christopher Dusendschon,Steven Emmert
Stunts	Dane Farwell,Cindy Folkerson,Randall Huber,Jay Jones,Kent W. Luttrell,Brian Maynard,Jeff Smolek,Brian J. Williams
Camera and Electrical Department	Chris Ahern,Joe Backes,Matthew J. Barden,Steve Belsky,Stephen Brooks,Randy Carrigan,Raul Colletta,Wayne ‘Woody’ Cone,John Connell,Don Duffield,Eugene F. Duffy,Jason Elias,Jeff Ferrero,Rocky Ford,Steve Galvin,Ákos Gulyás,Mike Henley,Tommy Hubbard,Bradford R. Jamieson,Paul Janossy,Bengt Jonsson,Wil Krug,Kevin J. Lanke,John Martens,Greg Mayer,Bradley McCollum,Steven R. Morales,Ron Newburn,Jennifer Newell,Angelo Orefice,John Palato,Ralph Pichler,Joel Randel,Paul Reyes,Felix Rivera,Ralph Sanders,David A. Santos,Peter Sorel,David Tang,Mike Tapp,Allan Telias,Rick Tiedeman,Tom Van Otteren,Warren Washington,Troy Webb,William Webb,Kenny Youngblood,Patrick Campbell
Casting Department	Leah Buono,Shannon K. Dunn
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Craig Ames,Susan L. Bertram,Pie Lombardi,Bega Metzner,Karen Vanderhorst
Editorial Department	Keith Henderson,Mo Henry,Jeff Kushner,Dan Vallerie
Location Management	George Herthel,Greg Kappy,Christian Krieger,Anthony Ragonese,Marc E. Spiegel
Music Department	Bunny Andrews,Wayne Bergeron,Gwen Bethel,Chris Bleth,Scott Cochran,Terry Delsing,George Doering,Tom Eaton,Nathan Furst,Ronnie Gutierrez,Pat Lawrence,Nick Nolan,Roberto Prieto,Spencer Proffer,Jimbo Ross,Dana Smart,Michael Tavera,Don Terbush
Script and Continuity Department	Patti Dalzell
Transportation Department	Michael Allegro,John W. Barbee,Ken Daly,Nikki Allyn Grosso,Sean C. Ryan,Allen Strockbine,Jimmie K. Turner,Michael Vieira,Roger Bojarski Jr.
Additional Crew	Paul Abraham,Alexander Adell,Bob Anderson,Sarah Anthony,Michael Barnes,Leah Bathe,Damon Bingham,Erin Borel,Gordon Breakey,Marcy Brown,Blake Busby,Amy Carroll,Laurel Chaney,Kim Clarke,Jonathan Coney,Mike Currie,Cara D’Antoni,Jonathan Dana,Robert Easton,Tony Ervolina,David Falicki,John W. Felder,Gregory Fitzsimmons,Sandy Flowers,Wayne Forman,Clare France,Maura Gannett,Chase Gilbert,Steve Guy,Mark Halloran,Ian Harrington,Jim Hartz,Jill Hattersley,Stuart Herr,Delphine Hirsh,Annette Hobday,Jimmy Holcomb,Ed Holley,Michael Huss,John Kawasaki,Michael Klastorin,Jerry Kokich,Julie Landholt,William Ley,Gary Lucas,Shannon Maloney,Craig Marks,Neal D. McConnell,Lexi Mealy,Jeff Miller,James R. Millican,Marva Mitchell,Eric Nelson,Kim Olsen,Rose Ordile,Roger Perez,Jennifer Rae Smith,John Wayne Randolph,Michael Randolph,Laurie Record,Ron Resch,Allen Scott Richards,Lujean Rose,Robyn Roth,Dalhia Schuette,Alan Schwartz,Fred Scialla,Ron Segro,Anna Siri,Robert ‘Skid’ Skidmore,Mylan Stepanovich,Marsha L. Swinton,Elana Taylor,Oakleigh Waits,Heidi Wilcox,Wendy Wilhite Chatley,Judy Sharinger,Jason Burke Sutter
Genres	Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Companies	Code Entertainment, Jersey Shore, Marigold Productions Inc.
Countries	USA
Languages	English
ContentRating	PG-13
ImDbRating	5.7
ImDbRatingVotes	14743
MetacriticRating	25
Keywords	drowning,suspect,waitress,crying woman,lawn mower