MILK MONEY
US, 1994, 109 minutes, Colour.
Melanie Griffith, Ed Harris, Michael Patrick Carter, Malcolm Mc Dowell, Anne Heche, Casey Siemaszko, Philip Bosco.
Directed by Richard Benjamin.
Milk Money is one of those ambiguous films, a middle-class variation on the Pretty Woman theme. On the one hand, one is tempted to disapprove, but on the other, the audience keeps enjoying the film. One hopes the plot is fairly far-fetched?
Three young boys want to find a prostitute for help in their school sex course and they encounter Melanie Griffith who saves them from being robbed in the city and who, by a tangle of complications, will probably become the stepmother of the nice and polite youngest boy. So, the film is funny at times, risque as well and also as sentimental as you can get. Melanie Griffith is at home in this kind of role. Ed Harris is nice as the father, winning smile. Michael Patrick Carter is nice as well. It is Malcolm Mc Dowell as the villain who snarls throughout the film. Milk Money is directed by Richard Benjamin, well known as an actor for such films as Portnoy's Complaint, Goodbye Columbus and who moved to direction of a range of films including Race with the Moon and City Heat.
1. An entertaining comedy? Family values? The questioning of family values? The sentimental story of the hooker with the heart of gold?
2. The settings: homes, schools, clubs, the streets? The wetlands? The musical score and the songs?
3. The plausibility of the plot, the behaviour of the twelve-year-olds, their encounter with V, home life, school, the biology class and assignment? The pimps, the bosses, the criminal world? The intersection of the two?
4. The focus on Frank Wheeler, Kevin and Brad? Their friendship, at school? Classes? Their admiration for Stacey, her disdain for them? Holly and her refusal to talk to them? Their wanting to look at a woman's breasts? Getting their milk money and pooling it, $103.62? On their bikes, their being mugged, V saving them? Their proposition, her agreement, Frank and his not looking - and their bikes being stolen?
5. V, Melanie Griffith and her personality and style, voice? Her encounter with the boys, saving them after the mugging, the agreement to strip? Her relationship with Cash, his being her pimp? Seeing the boys, taking them home, Cash's car, the breakdown? Tom Wheeler and his fixing the car? Frank and his liking V, the tree-house and her staying there, her remaining? Her going to the biology class? Her being a live model? Frank locking the teacher out of the classroom?
6. Frank taking V home again, his mother's dresses, V wearing one? Frank and his friends, at the dance, asking Holly to dance with him?
7. V, the criminal connection, Waltzer and his vindictiveness, wanting Cash's money, killing him? Thinking that V had the money? The pursuit of V, the dance, the lights out? The chase, the crash? V and her asking to be released from her job, Waltzer's boss allowing her? Her finding the money in the hotel? Her buying the wetlands, the ice cream shop? Saving the day?
8. Tom Wheeler, his work at school, his love for his son, his dead wife? His meeting with V, her wearing the dress, their going out to dinner? Kevin and his father - and his father's previous experience with V? Tom and V going home, her telling Tom the truth? Tom and his confrontation with Frank, V leaving? The effect on the boy, his secret box, the picture of his mother, his throwing it away? Tom and V getting it back, reconciliation, their relationship?
9. Tom at the dance, V and Frank dancing, Kevin's father denouncing V, their clash and their fight? The melodrama with Waltzer and the gun, the money in Cash's car - Frank raising the fire alarm? The boys in the car, Waltzer chasing them, their crash? The car blowing up, their not being hurt?
10. The finale, Tom's cause with the wetlands, stopping the developers? V buying the land in Tom's name? The ice creams?
11. The hooker with the heart of gold, redemption? Middle-class families, prim manners, the sexuality issues under the surface? The happy resolution - with the sentimental touches?
