moonspinner55 Review of Married to the Mob

Married to the Mob (1988)

Loopy mobster comedy with squirrelly moments but not enough jokes

[5/10 · 14 July 2007]

After her shady mobster husband is rubbed-out, Michelle Pfeiffer tries to cut ties with her past and make an independent life for herself and her young son, but Mafia don Dean Stockwell doesn't want her to get away. Schizophrenic comedy-drama from director Jonathan Demme is excessively barbed, edgy, and uncertain in tone (set-pieces that should be hilarious aren't--such as the sequence with all the Mafia wives in the supermarket--and just when a moment is about to take off, a violent undercurrent spoils the fun). Nearly every character is written and played for over-the-top laughs, but these people are not amusing on looks alone, and Demme doesn't allow the comedic momentum to build (he keeps the secondary characters flailing about, while scenes are pared down into frantic bits of business; Demme has already made up his mind how we're supposed to feel for this assembly long before we even know their agendas). After hobbling through a laborious opening, the movie does eventually pick up steam. Stockwell and torturous wife Mercedes Ruehl overdo it, but Pfeiffer is fresh and appealing--she does more for the movie than it does for her. ** from ****