Review of One for the Money (2012) by Sofi L — 01 Jul 2012

One of the challenges when reading the book before seeing the movie is that, inevitably, you're going to compare the movie with the book.

I would give the book an 80% for entertainment value. I have a reason for including this in the movie review: The humor of the author's writing is in the narrative, moreso than the dialog. The dialog is carrying the plot, as we tag along with the heroine, Stephanie Plum, in her attempt to clear the name of an officer falsely accused and on the run for killing an allegedly unarmed man.

When the movie was made, the filmmakers omitted the author's narrative. This was a mistake. We are left with a humorless movie and a heroine who is acting without understanding of the danger she faces, and we have no understanding of what's in her head.

This is a movie in which the dialog serves only the purpose of moving the plot. Heigl is not convincing as a New Jersey resident. This is a gritty character, and Heigl is a bit too prissy. Recast the lead character and add the author's narrative into the film, and it might be a lot more fun to watch.

There's something odd if not disturbing here as well: We are encouraged to laugh at actions that lack humor, presumably because the filmmakers want us to, and then in the next scene, the person we were laughing at gets blown up or shot. The tone of this movie extremely off-track.