Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This sometimes dark, sometimes slapstick, sometimes subtle comedy boasts one of the most intriguing casts to date. There are a number of recognizable faces, Danny De Vito, Bette Midler, Jamie Lee Curtis (to name a few), that brighten up the screen just that much. But to be honest, it was the roles played by Casey Affleck, Marcus Thomas, and William Fichtner especially that made 'Drowning Mona' so enjoyable for me. The movie itself goes back and forth between present time and flashbacks containing moments of a living Mona Dearly, who dies rather abruptly at the very beginning of the film. I think too many people say the plot it predictable. I was more than entertained for the entire movie and I never actually knew who actually killed Mona. Sure I had my predictions, and who doesn't. The point is that the movie's very funny and actually quite smart.The answer to the mystery is neat enough and the generous extras, including featurette, deleted scenes and director's commentary showed just how much fun everyone had making it. Writer Peter Steinfeld aptly called his script "a white-trash Murder On The Orient Express"-a fair enough summary. It's also interesting to note that all the stars in this-and many are well-known names were all people director Nick Gomez wanted for his first choice, and he was so pleased they consented to make this little movie, but I'm not too surprised cos many of these stars come across as far more genuine that all the typical so-called A-lister buck-chasers. Just a shame they should always have to do so in a barely-known comedy that burns the laughter stripes easily from the multiplex trash that almost always pass for comedies whilst putting bums on scenes.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Any movie that kills off Bette Midler in the first reel can't be all bad. Unfortunately, "Laws of Gravity" director Nick Gomez's "Drowning Mona" makes the fatal mistake of letting her abrasive mommie dearest villainess encore in the flashbacks. Bette has seen better days and better movies, such as "The Rose" and "Ruthless People." Nevertheless, this low-brow, blue-collar, white-trash whodunit looks like a soggy retread of Billy Crystal's "Throw Momma From the Train," also starring Danny DeVito, where veteran battle axe actress Anne Ramsey took top honors as a malicious mom. Appreciating the tacky humor in this cheesy comedy requires an abysmal lack of taste."Be Cool" scenarist Peter Steinfeld scrapes the bottom of the barrel for buffoonery. The antics that unfold after a town of clueless cretins realizes that Mona Dearly didn't commit suicide when she plunged her automobile, a Yugo, into the Hudson River are mind-numbingly moronic. The town's lesbian mechanic, Lucinda (Kathleen Wihoite of "Nurse Betty"), shows Police Chief Wyatt Rush (Danny DeVito of "The Rainmaker") that somebody tampered with Mona's brakes. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that Mona's murder was a mistake or who tops the list as the prime suspect. Needlessly, Steinfeld complicates this murder mystery the same way that Agatha Christie did "Murder on the Orient Express." Chief Rash's problem is that everybody in the small Hudson Valley hamlet of Verplanck, New York, hated Mona. Even his own daughter, Ellen (Neve Campbell of "Wild Things"), implicates herself when she sings "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead!" Few of "Mona's" characters, except for Devito's amiable but pint-sized Andy of Mayberry cop, rate any sympathy. First, Mona herself is as obnoxious as an ogre. She chopped off the hand of her own son, Jeff (Marcus Thomas of "Cowboy Up"), when he tried to take a swig of her beer! Rumors about how Jeff lost his hand will either horrify you or have you howling in hilarious agony. Second, Jeff deserved his misfortune. As a partner in a local landscaping outfit, he sabotaged it by running their lawn mower over a customer's pet pooch. No, they don't show the poor dog getting ground down. Third, fearing the wrath of Mona, Jeff's wimpy partner, Bobby Calzone (Casey Affleck of "Gone, Baby, Gone"), doesn't have the guts to fire him. Fourth, Mona's own adulterous hubby, Phil Dearly (William Fichtner of "Armageddon"), complains about spousal abuse. In a cartoonish fit of rage, Mona brains him with a frying pan when she learns about his extramarital affair with a slutty waitress, Rona Mace (Jamie Lee Curtis of "Halloween"), at the local diner. Later, we learn that Rona has been banging Jeff, too! Nick Gomez, who also helmed "New Jersey Drive," lacks the knack for comedy. "Drowning Mona" tanks a quality cast as quickly as a Yugo can sink. The best joke here is that Verplanck, New York, served as a test market for Yugos, so everybody tools around in them, even the cops! Despite all its stars, "Downing Mona" deserves only one star for its rating.

Drowning Mona would have to be one of the best comedies I have seen in a long time. I watched it on TV late one night and I really enjoyed it. It has a great cast with Danny Devito,Jamie Lee Curtis,Bette Midler and Neve Campbell.Most comedies these days seem to have to rely on smutty jokes and coarse language to be funny(ie American Pie) but this didn't.Don't get me wrong I am not knocking American Pie because I love that movie.Drowning Mona reminded me very much of the eighties dark comedies Ruthless People which also starred Danny Devito and Bette Midler and Throw Momma From The Train.It wasn't as funny as those but it was along the same line.I loved Bette Midler in Outrageous Fortune and Ruthless People and I thought she was great in this too even though she only played a relatively small role.I cant understand why so many people slam this movie.It is entertaining,funny,well acted and it is also a good murder mystery.

I can't understand how anyone can't find at least one redeeming quality to this movie, I think it is HILARIOUS, but maybe it's because I also live in New York, though have never driven a Yugo, but that's not the point either, LOL....you have to accept this film for what it is and was intended to be; an incredulously deep, dark comedy, in the style of the classic 'noir' only with a satirical edge and in the daytime. One has to sympathize with Sheriff Rash, wait, no, no, he's not actually a sheriff, LOL....the witty, yet gruff and banal yet exaggerated repartee, no...banter, is the element that makes this film a true comedy classic, I would equate the likes of this comedy with that of "The Birdcage", an incredulous, somewhat exasperating take on normal everyday life and the people that help to convolute it, LOL.....I love you Mona Dearly...but wouldn't miss you too terribly, LOL...see it, only have your tongue in your cheek! EXCELLENT!