Movies

In this remake of a 2001 BBC television production titled Hot Money—about women who clean the Bank of England and smuggle out in their underpants thou- sands of pounds destined for destruction— Diane Keaton plays the pampered Bridget Cardigan, who lives with hubby Don (Ted Danson) in a sprawling Midwestern manse. When we first meet the couple, Don's shredding dollar bills and flushing them down the crapper, while Bridget's skedaddling out the back door with a bag full of filthy lucre and the cops on her tail. Their story's told in flashback: Don, once a six-figure exec, has been downsized and is drowning in debt. Bridget gets a gig cleaning the toilets at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, where she meets the ditzy Jackie Truman (Katie Holmes) and the bored-outta-her-brains Nina Brewster (Queen Latifah). It's Nina's job to destroy worn-out currency, and Bridget figures, hell, might as well steal the bills before they're destroyed. So the women stuff the bounty in their panties and walk out the door, a few times too many—which is no spoiler, as the narrative's often interrupted by scenes of the stars explaining to the feds precisely how the heist worked. And while it's all so breezy and zippy and girl-power peppy, it's Keaton who makes Mad Money worth a few bucks.