Where the Money Is

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A preposterous plot, but it's not about a plot, it's about acting.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

It's just another modest, unsurprising little heist flick. So why is it so much fun? Newman.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A light, old-fashioned, likable film that capitalizes on the personae of its three key performers and a sort of playfulness.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

The film never drags, but one of the enjoyable things about it is its way of taking its time letting us get to know and savor the characters.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The Coen brothers might have done something inspired with this, but director Kanievska... turns out a more modestly entertaining little low-budget movie.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Coasts to a smooth, frictionless stop, but its star doesn't; he works as if his career depended on this movie.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Ultimately a fluffy bit of caper-noir, the success of Where the Money Is rests heavily with Old Blue Eyes.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

I don't know that Where the Money Is would work at all were it not for what we, the audience, bring into the theater.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The film makers are so anxious to please their audience that they turn the last act into a preposterous cat-and-mouse game that nullifies the integrity of the story.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Maybe this is a case of too many cooks spoiling a simple broth: The movie had four producers, five executive producers, three writers (credited ones, anyhow) and three editors.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A wildly improbable story that neither Newman nor co-stars Fiorentino and Mulroney, for all their panache and chemistry, can make much sense of it.

USA Today Staff [Not Credited]

Easygoing and easy to take, the movie isn't much.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

There's a caper and there are some laughs, but this isn't a larky caper flick; it's a pulpy little story that could at any minute go straight to hell.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

The romance and sheer fun that Where the Money Is packs into its swift 89 minutes follow from the sweet surprise that neither is threatened by the other.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's a lifeless little caper piece that never develops the magic and intellectual fascination it needs to bond with an audience.

Mr. Showbiz Richard T. Jameson

Hazards nothing to speak of and asks chiefly to be congratulated for its modesty.

San Francisco Examiner Craig Marine

If you haven't taken your mother to a movie in a while, this is the ticket, with its PG-13 rating, lack of violence and like that.

Film.com John Hartl

Utterly lacks the spark that makes caper movies fun.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Newman's magnetic face isn't enough to raise this intermittently amusing thriller above the ordinary caper-comedy crowd.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

With Newman, the movie emerges as a lively character piece with flashes of humor and grace.

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

Leaves you in no doubt of where the talent is in what would otherwise be a throwaway picture.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

A forced, implausible flick that loses its energy as it tries to gain momentum.

Film.com Robert Horton

There's very little here that rises above the level of a competent straight-to-video picture, except that whenever Paul Newman and Linda Fiorentino are onscreen together they create something special.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

The only way the film could have had a prayer of working--and thereby tapping its stars' considerable strengths--is by taking a much harder edge and going for dark, even bleak humor.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

The bad news? The story, which rumbles along like an unattended wheelchair on a gently sloping sidewalk.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Lacks any layers beyond its own amiable inconsequentiality. It needs the spark of the distinctively American slapstick craziness that has distinguished Frye's previous work.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The unrelentingly dull Where the Money Is tests his (Newman's) legendary charisma in a way no actor could overcome.

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

Slips by quickly enough, but it never engages our interest more than passingly.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This caper movie starts off as enjoyable guff before turning strictly formulaic and winding up as unenjoyable guff.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

A caper film hardly worthy of his (Newman's) presence.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Newman's charismatic, multishaded performance elevates the hodgepodge caper comedy a couple of notches above its preposterous plotting and self-consciously movieish texture.