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Is it worth $10? No
You know that feeling when you sit down to watch a movie that you suspect is going to be terrible, yet you want to see it anyway, in part because, like most other people, you enjoy watching a train wreck (not the “Super 8” kind but the proverbial kind)? Your standards are so low going in that you find yourself picking out the redeeming qualities of the movie instead of contemplating all that makes it terrible. This was the case as I sat down to enjoy – yes, enjoy – “One for the Money.”
A movie like this is a piece of fluff. Nobody expects it to do well (Hollywood box office projections hover at around $5 million this weekend) and it is certainly not expected to be honored in any awards ceremony expect possibly the horrific “MTV Movie Awards” or God-awful “Teen’s Choice Awards.” Yet it is put out there for a very specific audience; an audience that includes lovers of traveling pants, group discussions, and Janet Evanovich. Book clubbers rejoice! Here’s another movie that allows you to cheat on your monthly reading assignment and not be shunned for your inactivity.
Broke and desperate, Stephanie Plum (played with a partially consistent Jersey accent by Katherine Heigl) takes a job at her slightly incestuous cousin’s bail bond business. After discovering an ex with a $50,000 bounty, Plum dives right in to a case that is way over her head, hoping for a quick payout and a little revenge. 
What she discovers is a complex and convoluted whodunit featuring helpful prostitutes, a killer cop, and a large cage fighter named Ramirez. Debbie Reynolds plays her wily grandmother who automatically makes this movie better than the almost similar flop “The Bounty Hunter.” Also, the fact that it is not actually a romance in any way is nice. That’s right, folks. It doesn’t turn into a sappy rom-com.
Though voice-over narration tends to mean the writers are coping out by telling the story through exposition, it is doubtful that most book clubs are literary enough to know that that is a bad thing. In the movie it works because Plum’s truthful, matter-of-fact commentary helps keep things light and prevents it from taking itself too seriously. The subject matter could certainly easily veer into the realm of melodramatic. One of the helpful prostitutes is beaten and deposited as a “message,” but it is funny because she was trading tips for snacks. Definitely doesn’t take itself too seriously. It is not a laugh-riot, but it certainly has an overall humorous tone, especially if you like corny one-liners.
As for the characters, they are so clichéd that they border on satirical, as though this little film is attempting to make fun of all the “Jersey Shore”esque, “Deaprted”-inspired crime stories and personalities that are currently so popular. Everyone has their obvious archetype that they represent, and that does tend to leave the characters a little flat, but again, I’m sure the intended audience doesn’t care about that. Chances are they will be more interested than the inexplicable scene where Plum’s target, Joe Morelli (Jason O’Mara), slips into the kitchen and sweetly prepares the heroine a lovely garnished omelet. Tell me that wasn’t put in just to get the housewives (not saying that this is wholly the intended audience but it is certainly a part of it; I’m not sexist, promise) in the audience all hot and bothered.
But you know what? With so many pretentious Oscar flicks and high-octane action adventures clogging the theatres, this generally simple, easy-going, corny movie might be just the thing to distract for an hour and forty minutes or so. If you know that this is the kind of movie for you, you are going to see it anyway. Those slightly more lofty individuals who can’t enjoy a terrible movie merely for entertainment purposes would have known from the first trailer that this wasn’t for them. One thing is for certain. Over the next couple of months, many book clubs will be picking up Janet Evanovich’s novel “One for the Money” or, at least, saying they did after seeing the movie.
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