Joey is an unemployed longshoreman who finds a bag full of money that fell out of the back of an armored car. Joey forces his friend Kenny Kozlowski to drive Kenny's car into the lake to hide the tire tracks. Unknown to them, a local boy witnesses them doing the crime. Joey tells Kenny that he's not going to turn the money in and will keep it for himself. Joey refuses to tell his family about it. The police are investigating the missing money and the local boy tells them about the car. The police find the car in the lake and trace it back to Kenny's house. When the police arrive Kenny's house, his dad beats his son with a belt and Kenny tells the police that Joey took the money. The neighbors overhear this and word spreads around the city that Joey took the money. Joey and his girlfriend head to the airport to leave the country, until they get arrested.
It is based on a reporter's article about the life of Joey Coyle, an unemployed longshoreman in Philadelphia who, on February 26, 1981, found $1.2 million in the middle of the street after it had fallen out of the back of an armored car. The screenplay, written by Menéndez, Tom Musca and Carol Sobieski, is based on an article by Mark Bowden. The film stars John Cusack as Coyle, and features a supporting cast that includes Debi Mazar, Michael Madsen, Benicio del Toro, Michael Rapaport, James Gandolfini, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Maury Chaykin, Currie Graham and Fionnula Flanagan. The real Coyle died by suicide less than one month before the film was released.
Reception
gave the film two stars out of four, saying "the film lacks the substance to keep it going for one-hundred minutes. In fact, it's debatable whether there's enough meat for something half that length. Instead of a wistful fantasy about what someone could do with this much money, we get a plodding drama that takes a few unsuccessful stabs at comedy." According to Megan Rosenfeld of The Washington Post, the film "gets close to being a deft modern fable but flirts with cheap comedy too often"; "the movie veers into a crude caper and chase, all but abandoning the black comedy that has been so artfully set up. As long as the filmmakers stick to the specific, deeply textured reality of the neighborhood, the movie works; once they begin to broaden it, the flavor, and the poignancy, vanish." Kevin Thomas wrote "Money for Nothing brings to mind The Pope of Greenwich Village in its earthy urban grit and gallery of well-drawn ethnic portraits. Like that film, Money for Nothing exudes compassion for the underdog dreamer but could use more personality and punch in putting over its dynamite story. Even so, it's a winner because of the inherent strength of its material and its cast. For all its humor Money for Nothing is marked by an ever-growing undertow of sadness that's all but palpable."
