Director Report Card: Barry Sonnenfeld (1993) - Part 1

2. For Love or Money

“The Addams Family” had a difficult production. Two separate D.P.s quit during filming, Barry Sonennfeld got horribly sick at one point, and the financially crumbling Orion sold the movie before it was even completed. Despite that, the movie came out great and was a box office success. Sonennfeld immediately went to work on not just his second directorial credit but his third as well. A few weeks before “Addams Family Values” hit theater screens in 1993, a little movie called “For Love or Money” was released. The Michael J. Fox vehicle failed to make much of an impression on audiences or critics. Now, twenty-eight years later, the movie is entirely forgotten. But let's take a look at what this meant for the director's career.

Doug Ireland is the concierge at the Bradbury, a prestigious hotel nestled in the heart of Manhattan. Doug is the best there is at his job and especially talented at making sure the hotel's exclusive clientele is satisfied. He holds his own dreams of opening an equally glamorous hotel on Roosevelt Island. He's been saving all the money for years to achieve this dream. He also has a crush on Andy, the pretty young lady who works at the cosmetics stand. Despite his advances, she tells him she has a boyfriend. He smoozes with high-roller Christian Hanover, the rich guy that could finally make his dreams a reality. But there's a problem: Christian is Andy's mysterious boyfriend. And he's married and has no intention of his wife finding out about his girlfriend. Doug is pulled between his feelings for Andy and playing his cards right with his biggest investor. 

Michael J. Fox's legacy, at least as a movie star, is largely dominated by “Back to the Future.” Give a “Teen Wolf” or two, his other starring roles have more-or-less faded from memory. “For Love or Money” is part of a series of romantic comedies Fox would star in, on the trails of his most famous motion pictures. In fact, the movie has more than a few things in common with an earlier Fox vehicle, “The Secret of My Success.” Both have the former Marty McFly chasing love and money among the high-rollers of New York City. Much like that movie, “For Love or Money” lives or dies based entirely on Fox's charm. His boyish energy and movie star charisma keeps the utterly routine script afloat.

There's a problem though. On paper, Doug Ireland is a money-chasing asshole. He's introduced in the back seat of a limo, making calls on a cellular phone and paying lots of money for fancy gifts. The immediate assumption is that Ireland is a rich Wall Street asshole. In order to counteract this image of rich boy douchebaggery, “For Love or Money's” script goes out of its way to clarify that Doug is actually a really good guy. He stands up for an elderly bag boy, making sure he keeps his job despite the demands of the asshole owner. He repeatedly helps a schlubby guy whose marriage is falling apart, creating a perfect second honeymoon out of the kindness of his own heart. He selflessly goes out of his way to help people. You know, if you have to go to this much work to make sure the audience knows your main character isn't an asshole, maybe just don't write that character in the first place?

“For Love and Money” is a romantic comedy, with the focus perhaps more on the romance than the comedy. Andy is played by a young, shapely Gabrielle Anwar. She has a certain girlish charm and seems to be enjoying most of the scenes she's in. When matched up with Michael J. Fox, the two have a likable chemistry together. Especially in the moments when they are laughing together. When flirting gratuitously during a car ride, or nearly kissing during a romantic dance, there is a certain warmth you can link onto. Much of this is owed to Fox's effervescent charm and his ability to have chemistry with literally anyone, no matter how dire the material. 

Even describing the script for “For Love and Money” as “dire” is a bit unfair. It is, truthfully, utterly typical of the genre. The movie hits all the usual story beats exactly when you expect them. That includes what is easily my least favorite trope of the rom-com: That melodramatic push at the end of the second act, when some sudden crisis pushes our couple apart. In “For Love or Money,” it's a totally ridiculous misunderstanding between Doug and Andy that leads to a big fight, climaxing with a glass vase thrown against a wall. As is usually the case with moments like this, if either character had paused and actually explained what was happening, the fight could've been avoided. It takes you out of the movie, when you feel the machinations of the script pushing the characters forward, not their fictional personalities.

This is not the only rom-com cliché “For Love and Money” unironically indulges in. The Big Melodramatic Break-Up is almost always followed by the Big Romantic Gesture That Wins Her Back. In this film, it's Fox running across New York City, riding a horse and even leaping over a parked car, to catch up with Andy on the Brooklyn Bridge. To facilitate this, the movie drops two massive plot points within five minutes of each other. Christian Hanover tells Doug that he has no intention of leaving his wife for Andy. Christian then tells Andy he plans to rip Doug off. The script makes a normal asshole into a cartoonish bad guy just to facilitate its big, goofy finale. Sure, Michael J. Fox riding a horse down the street is cute but there were probably less strangled ways to get there. 

“For Love or Money” was originally titled, and released in some markets as, “The Concierge.” This is a far better title, as most of the run time is concerned with Doug's job at the hotel. The new title frames the conflict as being between Doug's desire for Andy and his hope of launching his own luxury hotel. Yet, due the overwhelmingly conventional nature of the script, there's never much doubt that Doug and Andy are going to get together. Of course, when ask to make the titular choice, he's going to choose love. So there's no suspense or drama throughout the entire last third of the movie, resulting in a film that ends with a sigh, instead of a bang. 

While built around Fox's strength and his chemistry with Anwar, “For Love or Money” did collect a largely overqualified cast. Udo Kier, of all people, is hilarious in a bit role as the (naturally) sleazy manager of the hotel. Dan Hedaya appears for a small role as some sort of sketchy, mafioso type customer, who contributes to some of the film's better running jokes. Even if they end up having little to do with the actual plot. Anthony Higgins is largely perfunctory as Hanover but, as the character becomes more ridiculous, his performance grows more cartoonishly evil. Which may be contrived but at least it's sort of entertaining. 

“For Love or Money,” clearly, aspires to be like the great screwball comedies of the forties or fifties. It very rarely reaches that level though there are a couple of close attempts. After accidentally inviting her to a party where Hanover's wife is present, Doug has to spin the girl around, making sure she's never seen by the wrong party. Later, while an elderly bag boy is packing as many objects onto a cart as possible, repeatedly drops a guitar, a decent gag that goes on for just the right amount of time. There's also an entirely random moment where a group of Rabbis chase someone down a street, wielding begets. I don't know why that joke is in the movie but it definitely made me laugh.

Ultimately, while “For Love or Money” is mildly charming a few times, it rarely produces those kind of laughs. Honestly, it's the small moments, that seem like the kind of thing Fox could've thrown in between takes, that prove the most memorable. Such as a minor moment where he hands some dogs a plate of leftovers. Or a moment were an impromptu clap plunges his room into sudden darkness, via The Clapper. It's not a lot and if I hadn't written these moments down I probably would've forgotten about them. But it counts for something in an otherwise droll motion picture.

If nothing else, Barry Sonnenfeld maintains his playful visual style throughout. The tracking shots that ran rampant throughout “The Addams Family” pop up a few times here, especially during the numerous shots set in the hotel's winding hallways. More than once, Sonnenfeld also includes some amusingly flippant crash-zooms, on a squawking parrot or an enthusiastic handshake. Two shots especially stick out in my mind. One is a slow zoom out of the doorway of an elaborate doll house that Doug has constructed for some reason. The other is a silhouetted shot behind a car as sundown happens in the back... As the characters describe vomiting to each other. 

I'm probably being too negative towards “For Love or Money.” It's... Fine. It's fluffy and relatively entertaining throughout its brief run time. However, there's simply very little memorable or interesting about it on most any level. I can only assume Sonnenfeld made the movie to further prove he could bring a project in under time and budget, following the somewhat messy production of “The Addams Family.”  The thing I most remember about the movie, when I remember it at all, is how the trailer played in front of seemingly every video tape I rented or bought back in the early nineties. (That and the “Make it a Movie Night!” rental promo with Byron the Dog.) Let that be this motion picture's legacy. [Grade: C-]