Attorney Walter Fielding and his classical musician girlfriend, Anna Crowley, learn that Walter's father, Walter Sr., has married a woman named Florinda and fled the country after embezzling millions of dollars from their musician clients. The next morning, they are told they need to vacate the apartment they are subletting from Anna's ex-husband, Max Beissart, a self-absorbed conductor who has returned early from Europe.
Through an unscrupulous realtor friend, Walter learns about a million-dollar distress sale mansion on the market for just $200,000. He and Anna meet the owner, Estelle, who claims that she must sell it quickly because her husband, Carlos, has been arrested. Her sob story and insistence at keeping the place in candlelight in order to save money "for the bloodsucking lawyers" distracts Walter and enchants Anna, who finds it romantic. They decide to buy it, on the belief that the process of restoring the house will cement their relationship.
However, as soon as Walter and Anna take possession of the house, it begins to fall apart. The entire front door frame rips out of the wall, the main staircase collapses, the plumbing is full of sewage and the electrical system catches fire. Contractors Art and Brad Shirk summarily tear the house to pieces using Walter's $5,000 down payment, leaving him and Anna embroiled in bureaucracy to secure the necessary building permits to complete the work. Walter's continuing frustration at the escalating costs of restoring the house leads him to brand it a "money pit", while the Shirks continue to assure him that their work will take "two weeks".
The repair work continues for four months, and Walter and Anna realize they need more money to complete the renovations. She attempts to secure additional funds from Max by selling him some artwork she received in their divorce. Although he does not care for it, he agrees to its purchase. He wines and dines her, and the next morning, when she wakes up in his bed, he allows her to believe that she has cheated on Walter; in reality, Max slept on the couch. Walter later asks her point-blank if she slept with Max, but she hastily denies it. His suspicions push her to admit that she did so.
Due to Walter and Anna's stubbornness, their relationship breaks down. They vow to sell the house once it is restored and split the proceeds. This nearly happens, but he misses her and says he loves her even if she did sleep with Max. She happily tells him that in fact she did not, and they reconcile. In the end, they are married in front of the newly repaired house.
Meanwhile, Estelle and her husband/partner-in-crime, Carlos – now revealed to be con artists – resurface in Brazil, where they meet with Walter's father and new bride to sell them an old house they claim to have lived in for several years - implying that similar troubles are going happen to them.
Principal photography began on April 29, 1985 and initially ended on August 5, 1985.
Exterior shots used a relatively rundown house in Lattingtown, Long Island that had been built in 1898 in the Colonial style. After the film, it was purchased for $2.1 million in 2002. In November 2019, the Seattle PI reported that the Long Island house had "finally" sold for around $3.5 million, at a significant loss in relation to renovation costs.[4]
Over Thanksgiving 1985, a new opening was shot on the Universal studio lot.[5]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 50% of 22 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.9/10.[6]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 49 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[7] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on a scale of A+ to F.[8]
Roger Ebert gave The Money Pit only one out of four stars, calling the film "one monotonous sight gag after another."[9] Ebert's colleague Gene Siskel likewise gave it one out of four stars, describing the film as "miserable" and an "abject failure." He criticized Tom Hanks for being "his usual smug self" and Shelley Long for being more cute than she was funny.[10] Both Siskel and Vincent Canby of The New York Times said that the movie's approach to slapstick comedy suffered from the same problems that Spielberg's 1941 did. They also agreed that Alexander Godunov's supporting role was the funniest part of the movie.[11]
