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Baby photographer Monty Capuletti (Dangerfield) loves his life. He loves his wife Rose (Candice Azzara). He loves his daughters Allison (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and Belinda (Lili Haydn). And he loves his buddies Nicky (Joe Pesci), Paddy (Tom Noonan) and Louie the Bartender (Val Avery). The one person he truly hates, however, is his meddling mother-in-law (Geraldine Fitzgerald). The exceedingly rich owner of a major department store, she can't believe her daughter stooped to marrying such a uncouth, unkempt cad. And thanks to a steady diet of bad food, drugs, alcohol, and lechery, Monty makes a good case for her disgust. When a sudden tragedy strikes the family, our harried hero finds himself the beneficiary of the entire fortune -- but there's a catch. Monty must change his ways. If he can stop gambling, smoking, drinking, and carousing, he will get everything. One slip-up, however, and the entire estate goes to conniving relative Clive Barlow (Jeffrey Jones).
In a very short theatrical canon, Easy Money is the movie most like its star. It's a shaggy dog tale told by a real life lounge lizard. With his Vitalis-slicked hair and outrageous wardrobe, Monty Capuletti is Dangerfield unplugged, tossed into a ditzy domestic sitcom complete with stereotypical in-law, devious villain, sassy teenage kids, and best friends who fall into easily identifiable ethnic categories. The entire movie is laced with an Italian-American sensibility that would make Pat Cooper proud. Pesci in particular makes the most of his genial goombah persona. Yet thanks to Dangerfield's input (he collaborated on the script and provided many of the main jokes) and his unusual onscreen allure, we easily embrace the movie's minor shortcomings.
Indeed, whenever the narrative shifts away from Monty and his mad dash for the cash, we grow antsy. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays the uncorrupted good girl so well that her failed honeymoon seduction by a struggling Taylor Negron is more painful than funny. Similarly, Noonan and Avery are also underutilized, clearly making room for more Nicky and his mean-spirited mama's boy antics. Still, when Monty becomes the laughingstock of the fashion industry, his 'design' of the ridiculed Regular Guy Look reflecting the '80s obsession with thrift store finds, Easy Money slyly shifts from star showcase to social commentary.
Yet it's Dangerfield's emergence as a certified movie star that makes this movie worth investigating. Oddly enough, along with the far more popular follow-up Back to School, Money would stand as one of comedian's only theatrical 'successes.' Aside from a celebrated turn as an abusive father in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, the rest of his motion picture output was sketchy at best. Toward the end of his life, he was clearly going though the motions. But in this first bid for mainstream acceptability, Dangerfield came up aces. Easy Money is a hilarious movie. It suits its star exceptionally well.
