Drowning Mona (2000)

Drowning Mona is the kind of wicked little small-town mystery that feels like a Coen-adjacent fable told with a grin: everybody’s got a motive, nobody’s particularly noble, and the movie knows exactly how funny that can be. Danny DeVito anchors the chaos with a wonderfully rumpled, seen-it-all authority, while Bette Midler’s Mona looms over the story like a hurricane even after she’s gone, giving the whole film its deliciously mean spark. The pleasure is in the ensemble’s timing and the script’s sly escalation, as each new revelation makes Verplanck look less like a community and more like a polite conspiracy of resentment. It’s not for viewers who want cuddly characters or gentle humor, but if you like your crime comedies tart, brisk, and unapologetically dark, this one goes down easy.

Drowning Mona is trying to be a small-town whodunit played as a nasty little comedy, where everyone has a motive and the fun is watching a community collectively shrug at a death. The problem is the mystery isn’t particularly gripping, and the “everyone’s awful” caricature approach can feel more repetitive than sharp, so the movie can come off slight and oddly low-stakes for a crime story. Danny DeVito brings some likable, dry energy and there are a few enjoyably mean-spirited laughs, but if you need layered characters, genuine suspense, or a mystery that stays clever past the setup, this probably won’t be your thing. If you’re in the mood for a breezy, cartoonish black comedy rather than a satisfying puzzle, it may still go down easy enough.