Susan Granger’s review of “WHERE THE MONEY IS” (USA Films)
When Paul Newman gets a roguish twinkle in his eye, you know there’s gonna be trouble – and that’s just what happens when a sexy, seductive nurse, Linda Fiorentino, discovers that her newest catatonic patient is actually a bank robber who faked a paralytic stroke to get out of prison. In this clever, unconventional caper, Newman plays Henry Manning, a renowned thief who got caught in a Denver bank vault during a massive power failure. Now he’s playing feeble in an Oregon nursing home, just waiting for the right time to re-claim his life. “There’s an element of Butch Cassidy in Henry,” Newman says in the press notes, quoting The Sundance Kid’s oft-repeated line: “Keep thinking, Butch, that’s what you’re good at.” The problem occurs when the larceny-minded Fiorentino, who yearns for adventure, tries to recruit him into masterminding a local heist. “I’m playing brain-dead, not brain-damaged,” he scoffs – but soon the plot thickens, much to the dismay of Fiorentino’s hapless husband, played by Dermot Mulroney. While Linda Fiorentino’s ex-prom-queen-without-a future character is intriguing, this is Newman’s film – from beginning to end. You can’t take your eyes off him. There’s a delicious scene in which he explains, “Faking a stroke isn’t easy – you gotta work at it,” demonstrating how he learned to control his reactions with a G. Gordon Liddy-inspired lighted match-burning-his-hand. Written by E. Max Frye, Topper Lilien & Carroll Cartwright and directed by Marek Kanievska, it’s a taut story, filled with tension and suspense. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Where the Money Is” is a low-key, fun-filled, spirited 7, taking a cool cue from jailbird Willie Sutton’s answer to why he robbed banks: “Because that’s where the money is.”
