Director: Keva Rosenfeld
Starring: Brendan Fraser,Elizabeth Shue,David Schwimmer,Jeremy Piven,William H. Macy,Steve Buscemi
How do you usually spend your twenty bucks? You know, speaking of twenty bucks, I wrote this great article (great by my opinion, at least) about how I spent this ten dollar bill my younger brother found when we were younger. Do you ever think of the person who lost that money? Well, this wonderfully delightful movie is a story about how Andrew Jackson travels from one hand to another. Okay, this was a movie made during the time when the twenty dollar looked different than it does now, but it is still refreshing. Also, this movie has a more profound effect in Third World Countries where 20 dollars often is a month worth of income.
Twenty Bucks follows a newly minted twenty dollar bill as it comes out of the ATM. You can tell the movie is a bit unrealistic as the ATM machine charges no handling fee of $2.00, but let’s suspend reality. Many twenty dollar bills auditioned for this movie with the eventual role landed by twenty dollars. However, due to Screen Actors Guild union rules, many twenty dollars were working on the set, some as stunt men and extras. And some of their colleagues—tens, fives, and singles—also landed bit parts. The hundred dollar bills were too busy working in some James Bond movie and could not be contacted for this smaller budget film.
So the camera follows the life of this twenty dollar bill as it goes from the hands of a woman who buys cake with it to a homeless woman who is trying to buy lottery tickets (yes, the serial number on the bill is the winning lotto number), to Elizabeth Shue to Brendan Fraser to David Schwimmer to Steve Buscemi to William H. Macy to Gladys Knights (but not the rest of the Pips). The twenty dollar bill really steps up because he (yes, I checked…it is a he) solves a relationship problem that plagues Brendan Fraser, who is engaged to a woman he doesn’t love. And Elizabeth Shue is dating the pre-Ross David Schwimmer, who is a hair replacement bottle salesperson, and she is unhappy. Steve Buscemi realizes that twenty dollars is too short to get dental work so he becomes a small-time crook with Christopher Lloyd as his partner. The twenty dollar bill wasn’t too effective in his role of crime. As Elizabeth Shue’s character runs into Brendan Fraser’s character, it is pretty obvious that they should hook up. Like Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, there are 5 to 10 separate stories that are linked by the twenty dollars. Or for you MTV people (see, I can be hip), it is like Undressed. The acting is solid, especially by the bill. But by the time, he makes his final journey at the airport, he looks weathered and torn. Yes, unlike other actors in Hollywood, he did not age well.
So when you get a chance, go to a video store and give your twenty dollars to rent this movie. Hopefully you will get back some change; you will definitely get back a great movie. And who knows, your twenty might be changing that video clerk’s life somehow.
