It's the women's turn to be Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in this wacky comedy about cons, doublecrosses and, of course, true love. It's very slickly produced, performed with gleeful wickedness and not remotely deep or meaningful on any layer. The humour is a bit uneven as well, but there's just enough anarchy to keep us entertained.

Max and Page (Weaver and Hewitt) are mother-daughter con artists with a clever scam: Mom marries a wealthy man (in the opening sequence it's Liotta), who is soon seduced by daughter, leading to huge divorce settlement. And they're off to the next victim. But this time an IRS agent (Bancroft) is on their case and they need to find big bucks quick, so Max goes after a tobacco magnate (Hackman), while Page sets up her own sting against a cafe owner (Lee). But of course, this is Page's first solo operation, and she can't help but fall in love for real.

Twists and spins pile on top of each other as the story progresses, and while the story itself is hardly original, the nearly painful predictability of it all is smoothed over by lots of hilarity. The best bits are throwaway jokes--sight gags and one-liners that have nothing to do with anything, but keep us chuckling with their sheer audacity. Hackman is especially funny with his constant cigarette shtick, which actually gets more inventive as the film progresses. Weaver has proven herself as a comic actress before (Galaxy Quest, Dave, Ghostbusters), and delivers the goods here with great timing and raw sexiness; Hewitt is pretty much all heaving bosoms and big brown eyes, and effectively so! Lee provides the film's most natural edge as a witty human being amid a sea of cartoon characters. Mirkin's film isn't assured enough to be a comic masterpiece--and it is far too long--but it's certainly funny and sexy enough to seduce us into laughing for two hours.

themes, language, innuendo

18.Apr.01

R E A D E R   R E V I E W S

"Mom (Weaver) seduces men into marrying her then sets it up so daughter (Hewitt) comes and seduces them into cheating - and voila, big divorce settlement. But it is much more than that - we laughed out loud through lots of the scenes, the laughs just kept coming. Sigourney was badly burned once, and keeps telling her daughter: 'Fall in love and they dump you and you end up with a daughter.' Eventually though, the daughter wants to go on her own, so they are going to split the cash in their accounts and go their separate ways. An IRS agent, however, is waiting at the bank, so the plan is one more big hit - pay off the IRS, and split the remaining cash, then call it quits. Their next 'victim' is played by Hackman, a cigarette tycoon worth 3 billion who thinks it is sexy watching women eat and smoke. The daughter is trying a separate scam of her own on the side. The plot has more twists and side plots; it will keep you laughing, I promise. It was hilarious! I loved the lines, 'Do you people know how much therapy you need?' and, 'Of course, I know how to deal with dead bodies, I am from Jersey.' Liotta was hilarious also, and Hackman played the hacking smoker to a T. This is definitely a funny movie, and I highly recommend it." --Laurie T, Minneapolis 7.Apr.01