It's been said that nothing can bring two men closer together than
a dollar placed between them, and a large family finds themselves
becoming far closer than they'd like over several million dollars
in this satiric comedy.
Uncle Joe McTeague (Kirk Douglas) is an elderly man with a multi-million
dollar fortune that he made in the scrap metal business and has
no immediate heirs. While Joe has no children, he has plenty of
relatives, most of whom don't really like him but want to curry
his favor in hopes of inheriting his money when he dies (and Uncle
Joe is just shrewd enough to know this). However, Uncle Joe has
hired a "nurse," Molly Richardson (Olivia D'Abo), who
considers modeling bikinis in Joe's jacuzzi to be therapeutic. The
family is afraid that Molly will end up with the lion's share of
Joe's money after they've been bending over backwards to earn his
approval, so they bring in a ringer.
Daniel McTeague (Michael J. Fox) is one of the only members of the
family that Uncle Joe actually likes; a professional bowler of no
particular skill, Daniel is the son of the family's black sheep,
a leftist activist who decided years ago and wanted nothing to do
with Uncle Joe. But Joe has a soft spot for Daniel and his imitation
of Jimmy Durante, so the family tracks him down and has him come
to visit his uncle. The idea is that if Daniel can get on Uncle
Joe's good side, he'll be rewarded in his will, and then Daniel
will share his fortune with the rest of the family. So Daniel and
his wife Robin (Nancy Travis) move to be closer to Uncle Joe, but
Daniel soon discovers that he doesn't like his family much more
than Uncle Joe does.
Greedy also features Phil Hartman, Ed Begley, Jr., Bob Balaban,
Jere Burns, and Kirsten Dunst as some of the venal members of the
extended McTeague Family; incidentally, the name "McTeague"
is a reference to the lead character in Erich von Stroheim's silent
epic Greed.
Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Greedy
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