Where to watch Pinching Penny
1 1/2 Stars
The ending is much darker than the beginning and as it progresses into darkness it turns into another movie altogether. The switch-up from just getting into a little trouble for some cash to buy stuff and getting in way over their heads is too unbelievable. Alex is absolutely out of his mind and Murphy is too happily sidetracked by Teddi to notice. Unfortunately there’s nothing about any of these people that is likable. We don’t even see enough of Alex’s consumerism issues to feel sorry for him, and when we do finally get to see his stash of goods it looks more like he’s hit up the local dump than any stores or pawn shops. It’s strange that someone would hoard things to this extent and then never visit or even seem to care about them.
Had Pinching Penny known what it wanted to be rather than meandering through the lives of two losers from normality to stupidity, it would have been a better film. Dan Glaser directs competently and the acting is fine. It’s simply the storyline that feels unnatural, at times forced and almost always boring. I wanted to explore these characters and their relationships more than simply what they were getting into. Just because someone has a motivation to do something in a movie doesn’t make it good, especially if it isn’t used for any other purpose. The cover of the DVD has a quote that purports this to be in the vein of Fargo and Snatch. I guess any movie with some blood and cockney accents could also make that claim. Pass on this one.
Director: Dan Glaser
Stars: Steven Molony, Timothy J. Meyer, Ginny Glaser