The Movie: One For The Money
The Players: Katherine Heigl, Jason O'Mara, Daniel Sunjata, Sherri Shepherd
The Makers: Julie Anne Robinson (director), Stacy Sherman, Karen Ray, Liz Brixius (writers)
Run time: 107 minutes
Based on Janet Evanovich's best selling novel, the film adaptation of One For The Money had so much potential. The novel was a breath of fresh air in the nineties, and female protagonist Stephanie Plum was a plucky, out of luck Jersey girl willing to do almost any job to pay her rent and keep herself out of her parents' house.
The film's plot somewhat mimics the novel - Plum takes a job with her scumbag cousin Vinnie in his bond agency recapturing criminals who have failed to appear at their court hearing. Much the same as in the novel Stephanie gets herself set up as a bounty hunter with the help of Vinnie's office manager, Connie, and fellow bounty hunter Ranger, and the audience is treated to cutesy scenes of clumsy Stephanie fumbling her way through learning to shoot a gun and bringing in her first Failure To Appear crim.
When Stephanie discovers that cop Joe Morelli is an FTA with a fifty thousand dollar bond reward fee, she vows to be the one to bring him in. Her motives aren't purely monetary based though; she wants to bring in the guy who took her virginity at sixteen and never called her again. And so the scene is set. Stephanie begins hunting for Joe, who is wanted for murder, only to discover that there is more to his crime than she first realised. She quickly gets in over her head when she starts sniffing around boxer Benito Ramirez after linking him to Morelli's missing witness, and her friendship with confidante hooker, Lula, puts lives in danger. Threats to her own life, a car bomb, and seeing Lula get beaten into a bloody mess convince Stephanie that Morelli is actually innocent, and bringing him in to collect her reward money becomes secondary to finding out what he's mixed up in.
Where the novel was witty and action packed, the film is disjointed and awkward. It's not quite sure if it's a comedy, a thriller, or a romance, and while a lot of the issues lie in the poorly constructed script, it's Heigl as Stephanie Plum that creates most of the awkwardness. The audience is very much aware that they are watching Katherine Heigl Play A Jersey Girl rather than watching Jersey girl Stephanie Plum navigate through life in Trenton. Personally, I think a relatively unknown actress would have been a better casting choice for Stephanie. Jason O'Mara as Joe Morelli is mostly satisfactory, and Daniel Sunjata makes a perfect Ranger. It's just a shame that neither of their characters in the film resemble the characters in the novel. Morelli isn't enough of a cop, and Ranger is nothing like the sharply mysterious man in the book. Another failing of the film is the exclusion of Plum's family, particularly Grandma Mazur, who would have added some much needed comic relief to an otherwise dull film. Sure, they appear in a couple of scenes, but it's very obviously filler material to set up a family dynamic that is ignored for the rest of the film.
While the film got the location and sets fairly spot on, it's disappointing that the two characters most resembling their novel counterparts are office manager Connie and hooker Lula, who are both are secondary characters at best. The film is a disappointment from the beginning, which is unfortunate given the writers had perfectly useable source material. As a Stephanie Plum fan, I was really disappointed with this adaptation, and unfortunately I think this film has destroyed any future attempts at bringing further Stephanie Plum novels to the big screen.
In a word: average
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