The fact that Bridget Cardigan, the upper-class matron who suddenly finds herself hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, cannot find any job better than cleaning toilets at the Federal Reserve is the first suspension of disbelief audiences must make in the new heist comedy Mad Money. The second is the fact that this same woman could mastermind a plan to rob the place.

Diane Keaton lends her slightly offbeat, WASPy persona to the character of Bridget, who has gotten used to the good, free-spending life that she must suddenly stop when her husband is laid off. Trained for absolutely nothing, Bridget takes the job as a cleaning woman at the Federal Reserve and wastes no time in formulating a plan to steal thousands of dollars in cash that is set to be shredded (she got the idea when shopping, of course).

To pull off the job, she recruits the help of single mother Nina Brewster and the carefree Jackie Truman. The plan is incredibly simplistic. While cleaning the empty cash carts, Bridget will switch out the bank’s padlock with one she purchased at Home Depot. The cart will then be filled with cash and transported to the shredding room by Jackie, who will pass her time waiting for the elevator by dumping some of that cash into the waste basket.

Bridget will then take out this cash with the rest of the trash, while Nina replaces the original lock before depositing the remaining cash in the shredder. Finally, the three of them sneak out with the cash in their underwear.

Mad Money is directed by Callie Khouri, who has a good track record for films about women on the wrong side of the law, having won an Oscar for her Thelma & Louise screenplay. She lacks experience as a director, however, having directed only one previous feature, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood; and her relative inexperience shows here. The film’s pacing is unbalanced, and although there are some good comedic moments, there is really no comic tension, a crucial element for any crime comedy. You have to have a funny feeling that they might get caught at any moment, and I didn’t feel that here.

Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that the film never really sets up the characters as having anything to lose. The obvious exception to this is Nina, who stands to lose her two sons if this plot goes wrong. On the other end of the spectrum, however, is Jackie, a carefree spirit living out of a trailer and driving an old beat -up auto that I’m sure she’s not making payments on. As for Bridget, well… I suppose she’d have to sell that mansion she’s living in and only be able to live upper-middle-class for awhile.

The performances are decent and enjoyable. Queen Latifah seems maybe a bit too restrained as Nina and Katie Holmes may be a bit over-the-top as Jackie, but I was still most impressed with her. Whereas Latifah and Keaton were more or less playing themselves, this is probably the first film I’ve seen where Katie Holmes played a character that wasn’t, well, Katie Holmes.

Mad Money is an early-season example of the films that often hit theaters this time of the year to pass the weeks between award and blockbuster seasons. Funny at times, it might sustain you for a couple of hours; but I wouldn’t recommend going in with very high expectations.

Mad Money is rated PG-13 for “sexual material and language, and brief drug references.” There’s really not much to worry about here as the sexual material and language are very tame and the drug references truly are brief.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of Mad Money.