by Gaynell Parker

Created on: January 30, 2009

Take a lemon with a thick peel, a poor couple who have no where to live and a desperate seller. What have you got? The Money Pit. Made during Tom Hanks early days, this movie is one of our iconic ones that we watch several times a year. It blends humor with tragedy in such a way that you just wince with them every time something awful happens, but laughing so hard you cry.

If you've ever gone through a remodel, this movie is something that will resonate with you. We went through an addition where we needed stairs, and when we got them finished, I remember feeling exactly how he did. "Stairs! We have stairs!"

Tom Hanks does a stellar performance as the average honest lawyer (one of the few in the country) who is cleaning up after his father embezzled their clients out of a couple million dollars. (This was back when a couple mil was a lot of money...) He is doing his best to pay off his debts and create a living for himself, at the same time trying to convince his girlfriend, Shelly Long, to marry him.

Shelly Long does a great job as a violinist for an orchestra that features Alexander Godunov as the talented and famous conductor. She has divorced Alexander's character the year before and they have been staying in his New York apartment. He's come back from touring Europe and they have to move out.

Tom Hank's has a friend who's in real estate that tells him he has a house worth a million dollars, selling for two hundred thousand. They go see it and it seems too good to be true.

After borrowing every cent they can get their hands on, they buy the house and move in. The first day in one of the stairs need repair and everything goes down hill after that. It's hilarious and bemusing to see what can happen to people faced with everything literally falling apart around their ears and what happens to a relationship during this kind of stress.

The adage if you can survive a remodel you can survive anything is true. Along with the stress of the house, Shelly Long's character stays at Max's house (Alexander Godunov) for one night and he leads her to believe she's slept with him. She lies to Walter (Tom Hanks) and then tells him the truth. He erupts and they argue and their relationship is shattered. Finally, after the house is finished and they are left with the key, the contractor who had over seen all the work told them the house had a good foundation, hinting that their relationship did too. "And if you have a good foundation, anything can be fixed."

They make up and finally get married, and supposedly live happily ever after. The end shows his father (who had gotten married at the beginning of the show in Rio) and his new bride buying a house in Rio from the same couple who had sold the house to Walter.

This movie is a classic and will live long into the archives of comedy. Our favorite part is where he comes home and discovers no one had been there to meet the permit man. He answers the phone and tells her "Mozart? Mozart is DEAD! His problems are over. Help MEEE!"

Then he is waiting for the permit man to come and steps into a hole covered by carpet, sinks down and becomes trapped. He sings all the silly songs he can think of, he can't answer the door when the permit man comes, and He's hallucinating by the time she gets a ride home in a semi from the train station.

It's great. If you haven't seen it, you really should, especially if you're a Tom Hanks fan. Because, even if you're not, you'll laugh so hard your stomach hurts.

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