Twenty Bucks
Encyclopedia
Twenty Bucks is a 1993 film
that follows the travels of a $20 bill from a crisp new note from the ATM
in downtown Minneapolis through various transactions and incidents from person to person through the city.
Linda Hunt
, Brendan Fraser
, Gladys Knight
, Elisabeth Shue
, Steve Buscemi
, Christopher Lloyd
, William H. Macy
, David Schwimmer
, Shohreh Aghdashloo
and Spalding Gray
all made appearances.
) to Anna Holiday (Sam Jenkins
), Jack reminisces about exchanging his foreign money for American currency when he first came to America, and he presents Sam with the $20 bill as a wedding present. Disappointed by the perceived cheapness of his father-in-law-to-be, Sam uses the bill to pay the stripper at his bachelor party. Ghada shows up at the party to explain that the $20 is not the entire present and to suggest that they should frame the bill to show that they understand its significance.
The stripper uses the $20 bill to buy a herbal remedy from Mrs. McCormac (Gladys Knight
). Mrs. McCormac sends the bill to her grandson as a birthday present. The underage grandson goes to a convenience store and asks Jimmy (Christopher Lloyd
) to buy him white wine. Jimmy goes into the store to find that his partner, Frank (Steve Buscemi
), has botched the robbery. The homeless woman from the beginning of the film tries to buy a lottery ticket but walks away when she realizes the place is being robbed. Jimmy and Frank leave, giving the kid champagne instead of white wine. The police chase the robbers, who pull into a used car sales lot and blend in. After the police pass by, Jimmy and Frank split up the money, but when Frank sees the $20 Jimmy got from the kid, he assumes that Jimmy is holding out on him. Jimmy tries to explain but instead just shoots Frank and takes all the money they've stolen, but leaves the bill the kid gave him. The bill winds up in the police evidence locker but falls into the wrong box.
Waitress and aspiring writer Emily (Elisabeth Shue
) shows up at the police precinct with boyfriend Neil (David Schwimmer
) to claim some items the police recovered. The box he's given includes the $20 bill with Frank's blood. After flying out of the box in the backseat of Emily's convertible, the bill floats around town, is picked up by a homeless man who uses it to buy food at the very supermarket where the homeless woman makes another attempt to buy a lottery ticket. The bill is given as change to a rich woman who uses it to snort cocaine, though she leaves it on her car, where it is picked up by the dealer.
The bill ends up being put into a fish by an ex-hippie (Edward Blatchford
) where it is won by a young man who has it converted to quarters and uses them to call a phone sex hotline in a bowling alley. The bowling alley owner (Ned Bellamy) gives the bill to his lover (Matt Frewer
) and tells him to go out and have fun. He nearly gives the Bill to Sam, who turns it down. He decides to go play bingo at a church. Emily's father, Bruce (Alan North) receives the bill as change. He dies shortly thereafter.
After the funeral, Emily reviews her father's effects, and finds the $20 bill in the wallet together with a copy of her first published short story. Her mother explains her father also wanted to be a writer. Emily decides to go to Europe. At the airport, she explains her decision to her brother (Kevin Kilner
), and melodramatically rips up the bill in front of him. Sam is also at the airport, waiting for a flight to Europe. Sam uses the ripped up bill as a bookmark but it all falls out without his noticing it as Sam and Emily walk toward their gate. A title card reading "The End" is derailed by the homeless woman picking up the bill.
She sits down in front of a TV and attempts to patch the bill back together. Just then the lottery numbers are read, and to the woman's ire, they match the serial number of the bill. She goes to a bank and inquires if the bill is still any good. The teller explains that if there's more than 51% of the bill left, it is still valid, and hands the homeless woman a crisp new $20 bill. The homeless woman dramatically reads the serial number of the new bill and leaves the bank. The end credits roll.
.
In one of the production featurettes, Rosenfeld says that the bills used in the production were figured into the production costs of the film. The producers obtained several bills with consecutive serial numbers, as well as "every thousandth bill" so that some bills would have the right first few digits of the serial number and others the right last few digits. The bills were then selectively damaged in specific ways as required by the script. When they were done with the bills, Rosenfeld says the bills were dropped into the petty cash fund money.
thought that "the very lightness of the premise gives the film a kind of freedom. We glimpse revealing moments in lives, instead of following them to one of those manufactured movie conclusions that pretends everything has been settled." Ebert was so engrossed by Christopher Lloyd's performance that he almost forgot about the film's title object, and liked the movie as a whole while acknowledging its vignette construction.
Scholars have compared this film to other films which track a single object traded among various persons (such as Diamond Handcuffs, Tales of Manhattan
, The Gun (1974), Dead Man's Gun (1997), The Red Violin
, etc.) However, by emphasizing a ubiquitous object rather than a more unique object (such as the auction-worthy violin in The Red Violin), this film "ushers the genre into heretofore unexplored territory."
1990s in film
The decade of the 1990s in film involved many significant films.-Events:* Thousands of full-length films were produced during the 1990s....
that follows the travels of a $20 bill from a crisp new note from the ATM
Automated teller machine
An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
in downtown Minneapolis through various transactions and incidents from person to person through the city.
Linda Hunt
Linda Hunt
Linda Hunt is an American film, stage and television actress. After making her film debut playing Mrs. Oxheart in Popeye , Hunt portrayed Billy Kwan, her breakthrough performance in The Year of Living Dangerously...
, Brendan Fraser
Brendan Fraser
Brendan James Fraser is a Canadian-American film and stage actor. Fraser portrayed Rick O'Connell in the three-part Mummy film series , and is known for his comedic and fantasy film leading roles in major Hollywood films, including Encino Man , George of the Jungle , Dudley Do-Right , Monkeybone ,...
, Gladys Knight
Gladys Knight
Gladys Maria Knight , known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian, and author...
, Elisabeth Shue
Elisabeth Shue
Elisabeth Judson Shue is an American actress and producer, most famous for her roles in the films The Karate Kid, Adventures in Babysitting, Cocktail, Back to the Future Parts II and III and Leaving Las Vegas, for which she won five acting awards and was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden...
, Steve Buscemi
Steve Buscemi
Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...
, Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...
, William H. Macy
William H. Macy
William Hall Macy, Jr. is an American actor and writer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo. He is also a teacher and director in theater, film and television. His film career has been built mostly on his appearances in small, independent films, though...
, David Schwimmer
David Schwimmer
David Lawrence Schwimmer is an American actor and director of television and film. He was born in New York City, and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was two. He began his acting career performing in school plays at Beverly Hills High School. In 1988, he graduated from Northwestern...
, Shohreh Aghdashloo
Shohreh Aghdashloo
Shohreh Aghdashloo is an Iranian American actress.After establishing a theatre and film career in Iran, Aghdashloo moved to England during the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and subsequently became a citizen of the United States...
and Spalding Gray
Spalding Gray
Spalding Rockwell Gray was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, performance artist and monologuist...
all made appearances.
Plot
As the opening credits roll, an armored truck brings money to load an ATM. A woman withdraws $20 but fails to put it in her pocket properly, and the bill slips away. A homeless woman grabs the bill and reads the serial number, proclaiming that it is her destiny to win the lottery with the numbers on the bill. But children grab the bill from her and use it to buy sweets at a bakery. The baker sells a wedding cake to Jack Holiday (George Morfogen) for a few hundred dollars and gives him the bill as change. At a party for the upcoming wedding of Sam Mastrewski (Brendan FraserBrendan Fraser
Brendan James Fraser is a Canadian-American film and stage actor. Fraser portrayed Rick O'Connell in the three-part Mummy film series , and is known for his comedic and fantasy film leading roles in major Hollywood films, including Encino Man , George of the Jungle , Dudley Do-Right , Monkeybone ,...
) to Anna Holiday (Sam Jenkins
Sam Jenkins
Sam Jenkins is an American actress best known for playing the role of Serena on the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys...
), Jack reminisces about exchanging his foreign money for American currency when he first came to America, and he presents Sam with the $20 bill as a wedding present. Disappointed by the perceived cheapness of his father-in-law-to-be, Sam uses the bill to pay the stripper at his bachelor party. Ghada shows up at the party to explain that the $20 is not the entire present and to suggest that they should frame the bill to show that they understand its significance.
The stripper uses the $20 bill to buy a herbal remedy from Mrs. McCormac (Gladys Knight
Gladys Knight
Gladys Maria Knight , known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian, and author...
). Mrs. McCormac sends the bill to her grandson as a birthday present. The underage grandson goes to a convenience store and asks Jimmy (Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...
) to buy him white wine. Jimmy goes into the store to find that his partner, Frank (Steve Buscemi
Steve Buscemi
Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...
), has botched the robbery. The homeless woman from the beginning of the film tries to buy a lottery ticket but walks away when she realizes the place is being robbed. Jimmy and Frank leave, giving the kid champagne instead of white wine. The police chase the robbers, who pull into a used car sales lot and blend in. After the police pass by, Jimmy and Frank split up the money, but when Frank sees the $20 Jimmy got from the kid, he assumes that Jimmy is holding out on him. Jimmy tries to explain but instead just shoots Frank and takes all the money they've stolen, but leaves the bill the kid gave him. The bill winds up in the police evidence locker but falls into the wrong box.
Waitress and aspiring writer Emily (Elisabeth Shue
Elisabeth Shue
Elisabeth Judson Shue is an American actress and producer, most famous for her roles in the films The Karate Kid, Adventures in Babysitting, Cocktail, Back to the Future Parts II and III and Leaving Las Vegas, for which she won five acting awards and was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden...
) shows up at the police precinct with boyfriend Neil (David Schwimmer
David Schwimmer
David Lawrence Schwimmer is an American actor and director of television and film. He was born in New York City, and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was two. He began his acting career performing in school plays at Beverly Hills High School. In 1988, he graduated from Northwestern...
) to claim some items the police recovered. The box he's given includes the $20 bill with Frank's blood. After flying out of the box in the backseat of Emily's convertible, the bill floats around town, is picked up by a homeless man who uses it to buy food at the very supermarket where the homeless woman makes another attempt to buy a lottery ticket. The bill is given as change to a rich woman who uses it to snort cocaine, though she leaves it on her car, where it is picked up by the dealer.
The bill ends up being put into a fish by an ex-hippie (Edward Blatchford
Edward Blatchford
Edward Blatchford is an American actor. He is best known for role as Peter Collins in the Peter Engel-produced sitcom Malibu, CA. He worked with Engel on three other series, guest starring in Saved by the Bell, Hang Time and City Guys...
) where it is won by a young man who has it converted to quarters and uses them to call a phone sex hotline in a bowling alley. The bowling alley owner (Ned Bellamy) gives the bill to his lover (Matt Frewer
Matt Frewer
Matthew "Matt" Frewer is a Canadian American stage, TV and film actor. Acting since 1983, he is known for portraying the 1980s icon Max Headroom and the retired villain Moloch in the film adaptation of Watchmen.-Life and career:...
) and tells him to go out and have fun. He nearly gives the Bill to Sam, who turns it down. He decides to go play bingo at a church. Emily's father, Bruce (Alan North) receives the bill as change. He dies shortly thereafter.
After the funeral, Emily reviews her father's effects, and finds the $20 bill in the wallet together with a copy of her first published short story. Her mother explains her father also wanted to be a writer. Emily decides to go to Europe. At the airport, she explains her decision to her brother (Kevin Kilner
Kevin Kilner
Kevin Kilner is an American television and film actor.Kilner was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Dorothea, a kindergarten teacher, and Edward Kilner, who worked in advertising sales and insurance. He made his first television appearance on an episode of The Cosby Show in 1989...
), and melodramatically rips up the bill in front of him. Sam is also at the airport, waiting for a flight to Europe. Sam uses the ripped up bill as a bookmark but it all falls out without his noticing it as Sam and Emily walk toward their gate. A title card reading "The End" is derailed by the homeless woman picking up the bill.
She sits down in front of a TV and attempts to patch the bill back together. Just then the lottery numbers are read, and to the woman's ire, they match the serial number of the bill. She goes to a bank and inquires if the bill is still any good. The teller explains that if there's more than 51% of the bill left, it is still valid, and hands the homeless woman a crisp new $20 bill. The homeless woman dramatically reads the serial number of the new bill and leaves the bank. The end credits roll.
Production
The film was based on a screenplay that was nearly 60 years old. It was originally written by Endre Bohem in 1935, but was never filmed; his son, Leslie, discovered it in the 1980s and revised it, modernizing the language and some of the plot. This version of the screenplay was then used for the film. The elder Bohem wrote his spec script soon after the release of If I Had a MillionIf I Had A Million
If I Had a Million is a Paramount Studios anthology film. There were seven directors: Ernst Lubitsch, Norman Taurog, Stephen Roberts, Norman Z. McLeod, James Cruze, William A. Seiter, and H. Bruce Humberstone...
.
In one of the production featurettes, Rosenfeld says that the bills used in the production were figured into the production costs of the film. The producers obtained several bills with consecutive serial numbers, as well as "every thousandth bill" so that some bills would have the right first few digits of the serial number and others the right last few digits. The bills were then selectively damaged in specific ways as required by the script. When they were done with the bills, Rosenfeld says the bills were dropped into the petty cash fund money.
Critical and scholarly reception
While many critics saw the film as a series of uneven vignettes, Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
thought that "the very lightness of the premise gives the film a kind of freedom. We glimpse revealing moments in lives, instead of following them to one of those manufactured movie conclusions that pretends everything has been settled." Ebert was so engrossed by Christopher Lloyd's performance that he almost forgot about the film's title object, and liked the movie as a whole while acknowledging its vignette construction.
Scholars have compared this film to other films which track a single object traded among various persons (such as Diamond Handcuffs, Tales of Manhattan
Tales of Manhattan
Tales of Manhattan is a 1942 American anthology film directed by Julien Duvivier. Thirteen writers, including Ben Hecht, Alan Campbell, Ferenc Molnár, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Donald Ogden Stewart worked on the six stories in this film.-Cast:...
, The Gun (1974), Dead Man's Gun (1997), The Red Violin
The Red Violin
The Red Violin is a 1998 Canadian drama film directed by François Girard. It spans three centuries and five countries as it tells the story of a mysterious violin and its many owners...
, etc.) However, by emphasizing a ubiquitous object rather than a more unique object (such as the auction-worthy violin in The Red Violin), this film "ushers the genre into heretofore unexplored territory."