One for the Money

Movie Review: «One for the Money».

English Title: One for the Money.
Production: USA, 2012.
Release Dates: 27.01.2012 (USA).
Russian Distributor: Premium Film / Cascade (26.01.2012).
Official Website:
Genres: Action / Adventure / Comedy / Crime / Thriller.
Director: Julie Anne Robinson.
Starring: Katherine Heigl, Jason O’Mara, John Leguizamo.
Running Time: 106 minutes.

Stephanie Plum investigates

On January 26, 2012 a new American comedy moves to the theatres. Its title is One for the Money, review of this movie will sum up our impressions about this film adaptation of a well-known bestseller in the United States.

Genre of women’s novels gets very delicate, when appealing to its loyal audience. If the reader likes the first book and its characters, there is a high chance of seeing additional subsequent expansions of the main story. For example, one Russian writer named Darya Dontsova is known for her Ironical Detective works, but even before she started, there had already been a new successful author living in the U.S., who acquired a lot of fame during her career. Being a daugher of a machinist and a housewife, Janet Evanovich, had the opportunity to experience many things in life.

She was writing under the pseudonym, getting experience with making romance novels, until finally she got to something that interested her a lot more – action comedy stories, where one woman could surpass the capabilities of all the males. Thanks to her writing talent, Stephanie Plum was born debuting in the One for the Money (1994) book. Let us not forget that the initial nickname the author picked for herself was Steffie Hall. Before taking on this ordinary young girl on her journey to become a skilled Bounty Hunter, all the career aspects of Bond Enforcement agents were analysed and studied by Janet Evanovich alongside with the day-to-day activities of the Police Department of Trenton in New Jersey.

Other Janet’s inspirations include actor Robert De Niro and his Midnight Run (1988) movie as well as the personal life of this writer. Various aspects of it with some eccentric relatives were transferred to the Stephanie’s assets. Since the launch of the new series, many subsequent books about her made their way into bestsellers’ list in America. By no accident, the Columbia TriStar production house for 1 mln. USD has secured the rights to film this novel about 17 years ago.

The company had bought the rights for the One for the Money movie even before the first book was published. In total, Janet Evanovich sumbitted 17 novels featuring Stephanie Plum series, four additional holiday stories and one short one. It gives the filmmakers a huge amount of ready material in these 22 works that can be used, if the box office stays favorable. Such length could compete to the adventures of James Bond. Obviously, not Columbia TriStar anymore, but the american Lionsgate studio will handle all the future for the franchise along with Lakeshore Entertainment.

Making a first movie in the series is, perhaps, the most difficult undertaking. On one hand, you are addressing millions of fans all over the world worshipping the original and hoping to see their favorite characters on the big screen presented in their best, and already not on TV, as it happened for Stephanie Plum in 2002. The right choice for the film’s crew and its actors plays a major part, and all the outcome depends on the decisions made here affecting the future progress of the whole franchise.

Working and resting

Master Detective

Many Action Comedies failed to find the right balance between humor and explosions, but this time the producers of the film named One for the Money (2012) have done their best, when preparing the creative process. It is rather amusing that many positions in the film’s crew were taken up by the women, leaving men there, where needed. The Director’s chair was occupied by a rising Eniglish star - Julie Anne Robinson, who already acquired the BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for her career on TV. Screenplay comes from a novel adapted by Karen Ray, Liz Brixius and Stacy Sherman with their experience in creating television shows.

The Producers of this motion picture are no less famous. For example, Wendy Finerman has an Oscar for her work with the Forrest Gump (1994), and also she worked on the project titled The Devil Wears Prada (2006). Her colleague, Sidney Kimmel, is still in a thousand of the richest people in the world tracked by Forbes. Tom Rosenberg is a founder and owner of the production company – Lakeshore Entertainment. We can also mention his Oscar for the Million Dollar Baby (2004). At the same time Gary Lucchesi from Lakeshore again has delivered around 50 movies to the cinemas during his career.

Finally, one of the Executive Producers for the One for the Money comedy is a successful model and actress, whose revenues are increasing from year to year. Certainly, we mean beautiful Katherine Heigl. Beginning with stories of teens coming of age and action flicks like Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995), where she co-starred a martial arts guru known as Steven Seagal, afterwards she moved to the genre of romantic and adventure comedies feeling herself very confident there. Her latest notable films include 27 Dresses (2008), The Ugly Truth (2009) and Killers (2010), which all have performed well enough at the box office, allowing her to get more production experience on the way.

At this time, Heigl got the role of famous Stephanie Plum – a saleswoman, who was fired from the Underwear store and divorced her first husband. Her family can look weird from inside too: here we have got Mrs. Plum played by Debra Monk, which is kind enough to contrast the indifference of the unnamed father, Mr. Plum, who is represented by Louis Mustillo. There is also one very eccentric, but clever Grandma Mazur with lines delivered by Debbie Reynolds making this character pretend that she is much younger than her real age is. The bill payments are overdue, the car is taken away, and the main protagonist is soon to be evicted from her appartment.

In the One for the Money film Stephanie decides to put everything at stake and her search for any available job leads to the cousin named Vinnie Plum played by Patrick Fischler, who runs the Bond Enforcment agency collecting those, who violated the bailout terms and hadn’t appeared at the court, when was obliged go. The company works with the most desperate and weird criminals or minor offenders ranging from exhibitionists to other troublemakers bringing them to justice and rewarding the delivery agents with the fees. Though much more Plum gets interested in the case of a hiding cop named Joe Morelli, which is brought to us by actor Jason O’Mara.

In search of nasty Criminals

Joe Morelli had a misfortune occasion some time ago, when putting his goat into one pretty girl’s garden, and now he will have to fully pay for it. True, he already has enough problems being an experienced police officer running from law and trying to investigate the strange killings in a working quarter. Witnesses suddenly disappear, while street girls looking for clients can become a useful information source. Stephanie Plum even isn’t afraid to visit a gym filled with brutal men during her One for the Money adventure. Nothing will stop this model looking girl from reaching the desired goal, and meanwhile she can solve the murder of Ziggy Kulesza briefly appearing with the face of Jarrod DiGiorgi.

Some nice performances are seen in the second plan roles represented here by Sherri Shepherd, which has turned into an always hungry Lula, and Nate Mooney playing Eddie Gazarra, who shows a nearly useless police detective, though getting his good points for listening to the advice coming from Stephanie. The story accomodated Jimmy Alpha, who manages the local gym showing acting skills of John Leguizamo alongside his sidekick – the boxer Benito Ramirez, which is as brutal as Gavin-Keith Umeh can only get. Finalising this string of characters comes Ricardo «Ranger» Manoso that on behalf of Daniel Sunjata is here to be the Stephanie’s mentor, cover her and educate on apprehending any criminals.

The abundance of funny jokes, exploding cars driven by Stephanie Plum follow all the leads provided by Janet Evanovich in her novels, as well as some glimpse into the world presented through one cool woman’s vision for the reality. In the film One of the Money its director Julie Anne Robinson ensures that Katherine Heigl is shining on the screen, where in the background all the other characters live, while she overshadows them all with her notable beauty, style and courage.

To her good credit, the leading actress gives hersef fully to the role trying to look, sound and act like Stephanie Plum, while staying really comfortable here, even when she gets handcuffed naked in the shower. Katherine Heigl was able to walk this difficult way to unveil her character also through a set of cleverly designed monologues providing more insight on her thoughts regarding everything that is around, where she still doesn’t forget the mimics, the gestures, the facial expressions and the femininity concluding this pack.

The Composer of the film is also a woman! Her name is Deborah Lurie, she comes from the U.S. and even wrote a musical score for the 3D-concert known as Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011). The soundtrack for this film is vivid and expressive, combining a variety of styles. We also liked the Russian VOs providing a good selection of actors with the one speaking for Stephanie Plum being the best, while truly matching her character with a voice tone as much as possible.

GameScope Verdict

One for the Money film has become a very pleasant surprise for us this winter among all the already released comedies. The debut of a well-known ironical detective series on the big screen is funny enough to be entertaining. Thanks to Katherine Heigl, this Stephanie Plum becomes a memorable character demonstrating all her femininity and charm to adequately address more light comedy fans than the audience of the Janet Evanovich’s books. It can also provide some fun to their boyfriends through certain episodes built on the contrast between male and female perceptions of reality. However, you shouldn’t expect too much seriousness from this motion picture or it copying everything up to the commas from the book, since it is still an adaptation. Meanwhile, we wish the crew the best of luck in walking towards the new sequels, which, we hope, will be made in future, since we would enjoy being charmed by Stephanie once again.

One for the Money Trailer

Movie Score by GameScope:

8.0 / 10