Why did a town of Yugo drivers become the backdrop for a box office flop?
In short: Drowning Mona, a 2000 crime comedy, centers on the death of a universally despised woman in Verplanck, New York. While the film features a star-studded cast and a bizarre premise involving sabotaged Yugos, it failed to win over critics or audiences, ultimately losing millions against its production budget.
Released in 2000 and directed by Nick Gomez, Drowning Mona follows police chief Wyatt Rash, played by Danny DeVito, as he investigates the death of Mona Dearly. Mona, a notoriously abusive and hard-drinking resident, drives her son’s Yugo off a cliff into the Hudson River after the brakes fail. The film’s premise relies on the fact that every resident in the fictionalized version of Verplanck drives a Yugo, a detail that screenwriter Peter Steinfeld claimed was the primary reason for choosing the location.
The narrative is a tangled web of suspects, including Mona’s long-suffering husband Phil, her son Jeff, and her son’s business partner Bobby. As the investigation unfolds, it is revealed that the car was intentionally sabotaged. While Bobby attempted to rig the vehicle to stop Jeff’s business from failing, the actual fatal sabotage was orchestrated by Phil, who swapped the car keys to ensure Mona would drive the compromised vehicle. Phil is eventually murdered by a witness, Clarence, who sought to rid the town of a killer.
Despite its ensemble cast, the film was a commercial and critical disappointment. It grossed only $15.9 million worldwide against a $26 million budget. Critics were largely unimpressed, with Rotten Tomatoes reporting a 29% approval rating and Metacritic assigning a score of 25 out of 100. Reviewers often criticized the film as a twee farce that wasted its talented cast. Beyond the poor reception, the film sparked controversy among actual residents of Verplanck, who felt the movie's depiction of their community was insulting, a claim Steinfeld denied.
The film’s legacy remains tied to its status as a box office bomb and its strange, specific focus on the Yugo. While it earned an ALMA Award for Nick Gomez’s direction, it is frequently cited as an example of a whodunnit that failed to engage its audience. The complex plot, involving affairs, hidden keys, and multiple murder attempts, ultimately proved too convoluted to save the project from its negative critical consensus.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Drowning Mona
- Also: Drowning Mona
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