Other People's Money

1991

Action / Comedy / Drama / Romance

19
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 47% · 16 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 47% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.2/10 10 10054 10.1K

materialism financial transactions

Plot summary

When a corporate raider threatens a hostile takeover of a 'mom and pop' company, the patriarch of the company enlists the help of his wife's attractive daughter—who is a lawyer—to stop the takeover. However, the raider soon becomes infatuated with her, and enjoys the legal manoeuvring as he tries to win her heart.

Director

Norman Jewison Photo
Norman Jewison

Top cast

David Wells Photo
David Wells as Granger
Michael Laskin Photo
Michael Laskin as Michael the Concierge
R.D. Call Photo
R.D. Call as Arthur
Mo Gaffney Photo
Mo Gaffney as Harriet
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
926.53 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 40 min
Seeds 3
1.68 GB
1904*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 40 min
Seeds 16

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Momcat_of_Lomita 7 / 10

Funny, poignant, who knew Danny de Vito could be a sex symbol?

This movie is great entertainment that delivers a message without being preachy. And a measure of how successful it is: it makes you believe that Danny de Vito and Penelope Ann Miller actually could be a great, sexy couple! It is very much a movie of its time: the late 80's, early 90's, when corporate "raiders" and hostile takeovers of firms were in the news. Stock traders made fortunes and corporations were laying off thousands of people at a time as CEO's sought to raise the price of their stock, and it didn't matter what a company was making-- or not making-- as long as the price of the stock stayed up.So, in this environment of "greed is good" and Wall Street being the tail that wagged the dog of American productivity, we have this movie, which pits the good guy, Andrew "Jorgie" Jorgensen (played by the archetypal good guy actor, Gregory Peck), against the bad guy, corporate raider Lawrence Garfield (played by Danny de Vito).Jorgie is the majority stockholder and CEO of New England Wire & Cable Company, a firm that is a creation of his family and whose interests and employees he regards as a responsibility of his family. As played by Peck, Jorgie is the acme of decency and old-fashioned conservative values: hard work and thrift, expecting loyalty from his employees and demonstrating loyalty in return. Stubborn and resistant to change where he sees change as conflicting with his values. An upright, honest, virtuous man who believes that moral rightness will always be recognized and will always triumph.Danny de Vito is his nemesis: a corporate raider who rose from hardscrabble beginnings in the Bronx to a posh Manhattan office and mansion, whose expertise is in finding stocks that are undervalued and making a profit through manipulating the market. He is unabashed about what he does: he loves "the game," as he calls it, and plays it with the fighting spirit of a junk-yard pitbull. There's no malice in what he does, no hard feelings, but also no apology for the carnage he leaves in his wake. He's just doing what he's best at doing.And so de Vito identifies New England Wire & Cable as a prime target for takeover: the company is worth far more than the value of its stock. That's all de Vito needs to know, and the fight is on.The interest comes when Jorgie brings his step-daughter in to advise on how to fend off de Vito. Penelope Ann Miller plays Kate Sullivan, a young hot-shot lawyer in a Manhattan legal firm. She's a HOT hot-shot, no doubt about it, and much of the movie centers on her interactions with de Vito.The thing de Vito brings to his role is great energy and joy. This is a character that could be played as dark, as evil, as someone to be reviled, but there is a genuine likability to de Vito even as you see that what he's doing causes a lot of people a lot of harm, and that he's not above doing unethical things if he thinks he can get away with them. But for all that he's definitely not a "good guy," he's someone you can't really dislike. He's a rogue, but he's a rogue completely without malice. Just like a tiger will tear the throat out of its prey and is a dangerous predator, but is still a beast with qualities that make you admire it-- from a distance, or with the bars of a cage to protect you.The movie's final battle, the scene where Peck and de Vito make speeches to the company stockholders in support of what they represent, is an amazingly articulate piece of writing that is as superbly acted as anything you're going to see in the movies. IMO that one scene alone makes the movie worthwhile. That there's so much more to like about this movie really makes it a winner.Dean Jones has a role in the movie that I think is one of the best of his career. I don't think he got the respect in his career that he deserved; he did a lot of work in Disney films, and I think this caused people to take his talents as an actor lighter than they should. He's excellent in his role here.And Penelope Ann Miller-- she is absolute dynamite in this role, she's really the backbone of the action. Her interactions with de Vito are warm and believable and the chemistry between the two of them WORKS.There are some flaws to the movie: the biggest is that there is apparently some back-story, some conflict between the Jorgie character and Miller's character, that isn't made clear. She's Jorgie's step-daughter and it's apparent that at some time in their lives, there was a conflict, and that there is a reserve between them. But it's never made clear what the issue was, and to this extent the movie isn't satisfying.Piper Laurie's character, Jorgie's wife, is also perhaps not fully realized. She's good, but there's something missing, something I can't really describe.But those are small quibbles. Over all, this is a superb movie that I think is one of de Vito's best roles, and is a funny, thoughtful, well-written story that characterizes a particular time and issue that were defining to America.
Reviewed by jgcorrea 6 / 10

Speaking of Adam Smith and the invisible hand...

Fortunately (or maybe not, depending on your preferential taste) this story works better as an allegory-fable about capitalism than as a romantic comedy. It's an adaptation of a theatrical play that raises many questions about the purpose of capitalism in civilized society. It particularly offers the conflicting arguments during an extraordinary shareholders' meeting: do businesses exist merely to enrich investors or do shareholders sign an obliging pact with those who labor on their behalf? It's overall a straightforward, candid and convincing defense of capitalism - therefore a respectable variant to the infamous Gecko speech in Oliver Stone's 'Wall St.' Its comedic end is compromising, though: a predictable Hollywood cocktail of morality and romance. The main philosophical arguments in the play (in short, capitalism is a necessary part of progress, and the old must be destroyed in order to create the new) is eventually sacrificed to romantic comedy, and all the fundamental questions about capitalism remain unanswered. (Of course film & entertainment mean suspension of disbelief, and there is, anyway, no easy answer) Here, free-market liberalism wins the day and Hollywood bets on its side, coming out on top: happiness IS at the end of the capitalist progress - so argued Adam Smith, the author who was an important party to the Scottish Enlightenment, the spiritual thinker who believed that the invisible hand behind the market belongs to God.
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