cast : michael j . fox , gabrielle anwar , anthony higgins , michael tucker , dan hedaya , bob balaban ( who never appeared . . . ) director : barry sonnenfield screenplay : mark rosenthal , lawrence konner score : bruce broughton release : october 1 , 1993 i don't like movies that start off bad and end up that way , too . i don't like movies that present an audience with absolutely no redeeming values ( nothing to laugh at , or cry about , or feel excited about ) . i don't like movies that front as something that they're not . i don't like movies like this one . michael j . fox stars as douglas ireland , concierge at a ritzy hotel in new york . he doesn't take his work lightly--the man makes people feel useful , saves marriages , takes dogs for a walk , gives you tickets to any broadway show you want . and doug has a dream of creating his very own hotel , called the doug , or the river house . he just needs to make a big-time money man very happy in the mean time , so that he can close a deal . to do this , he must take good care of the man's younger mistress ( played by gabrielle anwar ) . the woman is beautiful , and doug has been after her for some time now , so he gladly accepts the job and does whatever it takes to make his dream a reality . well , doug falls in love with her ( big surprise , huh ? ) . the only problem is , he can't act on his feelings for risk of crushing his dream . ah , what's a man to do . . . ? i knew what would happen . in fact , i knew everything about this movie within the first ten minutes it played . for love or money is an exercise in just how predictable and utterly worthless a comedy--or * movie * , in general--can be . it isn't funny , or romantic , or engaging , or surprising , or original in any way . fox acts with some sort of smirk on his mug the whole time , and basically looks rather bored throughout the movie . the usually strong supporting " love interest " that should have backed him up--or , in this case , sufficed for him--is played by an enigmatic young actress named gabrielle anwar . we saw her briefly in scent of a woman , doing the tango with al pacino , but got nothing , no sort of impression , from her little screen time in the film . i guess for love or money came to her in the wake of the success of that movie , she read over the screen play , and said , " yeah , i should probably do this so i can work some more and survive in this business . " it's just too bad for her that the script , by two different people , has * no * luster about it whatsoever . and what about michael j . fox ? what's his problem ? i know he can be funny , i saw it in back to the future 1 , 2 , and 3 . i know he can be dramatic , i saw that in casualties of war . but lately , things just don't seem to be working out for him ( first life with mikey , and now this ? ) . his character of concierge here is pretty much a nice guy-- but that's it . he's extremely shallow in the movie , and isn't able to give his character the gravity it so desperately needs . i didn't want to give this movie a bad review--i hate doing that for * any * film . but the disappointing fact is : bad movies often are written , and cast , and filmed . for love or money should've stopped on the first level , been trashed , and then rewritten until it could make us care about it . what we have here is an excruciatingly unnecessary film . critical rating : ( 1/2 ) * rated pg-13 , for very mild profanity -- running time : 1 : 33m 
