Every new homeowner's worst nightmare, as experienced by a pair of almost-average mid '80s DINKs. They sink a fortune into this place, a secluded estate that looks too good to be true and, of course, falls apart around them mere moments after key touches palm. Mid-lifers will find it easy to relate with this couple, played by Tom Hanks and Shelley Long, as they seem familiar and good-natured if a bit naive. Their ability to procure huge sums of money at the drop of a hat is a red flag, though, and the soapy complications of their personal lives actually serve to distance them from the audience. Hanks is a riot, especially when he descends into madness at the height of his misery, but Long may as well have been a wooden set piece. Try as he might, our leading man just can't draw a performance out of her and the duo's serious lack of chemistry is a problem. Funny in a Seinfeldian car crash, looking-through-our-fingers kind of way, the plot skips over the moment where its players' fates shift from disaster to redemption and the payoff, as a result, feels flat.
Review of The Money Pit
