
Don and Bridget Cardigan's upper middle class lifestyle is threatened since Don, who has been out of work for a year, seems to have given up looking for a job, and housewife Bridget has been out of the workforce for most of her life. They are close to $300,000 in debt. Finding out this information, Bridget comes to the conclusion that she needs to get a job - any job - that at least provides them with some benefits. She reluctantly takes a job as a janitor at the Federal Rese... (Full plot summary below)
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Don and Bridget Cardigan's upper middle class lifestyle is threatened since Don, who has been out of work for a year, seems to have given up looking for a job, and housewife Bridget has been out of the workforce for most of her life. They are close to $300,000 in debt. Finding out this information, Bridget comes to the conclusion that she needs to get a job - any job - that at least provides them with some benefits. She reluctantly takes a job as a janitor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Almost immediately, Bridget is enthralled with all the old worn out money that is being shredded. She comes up with a plan to get her old lifestyle back by stealing much of that money, which she believes is an easy job since the locks used on the money carts are standard equipment and as she notices that no one ever checks the garbage as she goes about her work. Her plan needs the cooperation of one person who works the shredder and one person who pushes the carts of money. The two people she co-opts are single mom Nina Brewster and diabetic, trailer living and constant music listening Jackie Truman. Jackie is easy to convince, but Nina is only convinced when Bridget brings it to her attention that the money would allow her to provide a better education to her two bright sons. Nina vows to kill Bridget if she ever loses her children because of this scheme. As the three woman progress with the plan, it is threatened by: the bank's head of security, a man named Glover, who believes it is impossible to steal money from the reserve; another security guard at the reserve named Barry who seems to be attracted to Nina; Jackie's working class husband Bob who is not used to having money; Don, a conservative man who can't understand being on the wrong side of the law; and Bridget herself who seems to be increasingly focused on getting more and more money with no end in sight, which seems to be diverging from the priorities of her two accomplices.
Leave your thoughts about Mad Money.
| Worcester Telegram & GazetteDaniel M. Kimmel[It] isn't a horrible film. It's merely adequate, sort of like a box of generic tissues. |
| Detroit NewsTom LongThis leap might be a bit easier to take if the robbers involved weren't all straight from the female stereotype handbook. And if any of their male companions were given an ounce of credibility. |
| Sacramento News & ReviewJim Lane...if it were this easy to rob the Fed, the dollar wouldn't be worth the paper [Glenn] Gers' script is printed on. |
| BeliefnetNell MinowWhat force on earth is strong enough to unite an upper middle class suburban housewife, a poor African American single mother and a young, spaced out rock n' roll fan living in a trailer? Why, the opportunity to steal from the government, of course. |
| Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonWhat's intended as empathy feels more like condescension, built around Hollywood's out-of-touch belief that anything below Land Rover is the poverty line. |
| Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanLatifah coasts on grit and verve, and Holmes has a goggle-eyed sweetness, but it's Keaton who rules. |
| Baltimore SunChris KaltenbachThe pleasures of this slight caper film are strictly small-screen, as three talented actresses walk through quaint roles before they hurry on to the next project. |
| Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam ArnoldThe results are moderately entertaining, but the humor is broad and shallow; the film has none of the irony, bite or wit of its predecessor; and the script (by Glenn Gers) seems so calculated to appeal to every conceivable female demographic that it always feels contrived. |
| Village VoiceRobert WilonskyWhile it's all so breezy and zippy and girl-power peppy, it's Keaton who makes Mad Money worth a few bucks. |
| Boston GlobeWesley MorrisThis is the feistiest Hollywood movie about American women and their thankless jobs since "9 to 5." |