One For The Money: Hybridization Woes

In general, hybridizations between different genres tend to be risky. For some reason, zombie thriller-comedies have been great hits, but we still haven’t had too many competent chick flick-crime dramas. One for the Money fails to strike the right balance between these two genres.

Stephanie Plum (Katherine Heigl), a born and bred Jersey girl, has had a couple of bad breaks. After her divorce, she loses her job as a department store lingerie manager and loses her car to a humiliating repossession. Facing eviction, Stephanie asks her cousin Vinnie (Patrick Fischler), a bail bondsman, for any job. As fate would have it, they’re looking for Joe Morelli (Jason O’Mara), a cop who is wanted for murder. It just so happens that Morelli dumped Stephanie after a one night stand in high school. Thirsty for cash and vengeance, Stephanie begs Vinnie for this assignment and becomes a bounty hunter.

Admittedly, Stephanie learns to put aside her petty personal vendetta to investigate the unexplained murders in her working-class neighborhood. At first compelled by mercenary and vengeful motives, she realizes that the case is really not about her or Morelli. It actually involves a missing prostitute and a heroin ring. Her character fits a common archetype–a blasé, self-involved individual who inadvertently starts fighting against wrongs in her community. As in many fuzzy rom-coms, both her parents chime in at the dinner table that she needs a man and a job. In this cross-hybridization of chick flick and crime drama, the protagonist finds both in her search for social justice.

However, Stephanie is not exactly a self-sufficient female character–she needs help from Officer Eddie Gazara (Nate Mooney), her cousin’s husband; Ranger (Daniel Sunjata), an experienced bounty hunter; and even the roguish Morelli. The cynic in me protests that this is a rather patriarchal story, since the female protagonist largely depends on the power and intellect of several male allies. Whenever she encounters danger, either Ranger or Morelli magically appear to save her life. Then again, most chick flicks ultimately reinforce the patriarchal system, so One for the Money is definitely not alone.

Apart from the rather weak female protagonist, the mystery plot itself lacked thrill and suspense. The plot rarely featured any suspense or surprise, apart from Stephanie’s senile grandmother (Debbie Reynolds) shooting the turkey dinner with a pistol. Furthermore, all the pieces of evidence are just so conveniently gathered from unusually cooperative witnesses. Stephanie extracts information from a hooker, a pothead witness, and the victim’s mom with very little resistance or difficulty. Instilling more struggle and conflict in the investigative process would have enhanced the mystery plot, but the creators may have chosen to forgo this because most chick flicks do not typically feature high attention to detail. In this manner, the film struggles to reconcile the genres of crime drama and romantic comedy.

The resolution of this mystery plot was also rather shabby. Morelli was supposed to have been framed by the drug dealers, but the film hardly shows any flashbacks or detailed recounts of the murder probably because the creators invest most of their time depicting the romantic subplot.

Unfortunately, the lackluster dialogue further undermines this sub-par romance. For example, both Morelli and Stephanie that they are “ancient history, like the pyramids.” After degradingly calling her “cupcake” for most of the movie, Morelli returns with an actual cupcake saying, “this reminded me of you.” Such outright sexist and clichéd dialogue prevented me from taking this couple seriously.

Last but not least, the storytelling is just so overdone and in-your-face that we lose interest. The scene in which Morelli handcuffs a naked Stephanie to the shower seemed desperately contrived to illustrate some chemistry between the two characters. In addition to lacking subtlety, the film tends to tell instead of show by heavily relying on a voiceover that tries to hard to be clever. After taking a senile old naked man into custody, Stephanie jokes, “I had to see an old guy’s twig and berries, but at least it bought me a meal that didn’t come in a Lunchables box.” A voiceover that spells out everything bores the audience because we don’t have to concentrate as hard to follow the story.

All in all, One for the Money fails to support its mystery-thriller plot because it disproportionately focuses on illustrating the sexual tensions between Morelli and Plum. This movie may appeal to young girls who favor fuzzy rom-coms and get easily intimidated by action and thriller movies.