Film review: 'Analyze This'
Unable to achieve a consistent tone, Harold Ramis' mobster comedy "Analyze This" has multiple personalities and hits the audience with a few fresh jokes but far too many 1970s mafia movie cliches. Despite an unattractive title and only a woefully underutilized Lisa Kudrow to attract younger moviegoers, the Warner Bros. wide release still shapes up as a likely boxoffice winner.
Glowing reviews and word-of-mouth from undemanding critics and audiences will revolve around the sometimes gutsy but often labored performances of leads Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal. Analyzing this shabbily tailored star vehicle, however, is not much fun.
Opening with a splashy prologue set in 1957, with New York gangster Paul Vitti (De Niro) narrating the story of an ill-fated meeting between organized crime's "big bosses," "Analyze" shifts to the present, when another underworld gathering has been called. Born and raised to lead his crime family, Vitti is a tough hombre, but he's having strangely vulnerable moments caused by the stress of taking over when his boss and mentor is gunned down.
With Vitti dodging real bullets during an explosive assassination scene, the film shifts breezily to the dreary therapy sessions of Ben Sobel (Crystal), a big-city psychiatrist with his own hang-ups. Decent and law-abiding but professionally unchallenged, Ben is divorced and about to remarry. Engaged to a Miami-based newscaster (Kudrow), he is out for a drive with the young son (Kyle Sabihy) from his first marriage when he rear-ends Vitti's limo.
Anxious to do the right thing, Ben insists on giving his business card to Vitti's bodyguard Jelly (Joe Viterelli), though it's clear the mobsters prefer to ignore the mishap. Soon after, Vitti seeks out the "head doctor" to deal with embarrassing emotional outbursts. While De Niro has a somewhat rough time shifting between macho mafioso and weepy sentimentalist, Crystal is more consistent as feisty Ben.
A few amusing, inspired sight gags keep one hoping that Ramis and crew will find an unpredictable approach and snappier rhythm, but schizoid storytelling undermines the project. Blackly humorous one moment -- Vitti ruins Ben's first attempt at marrying Kudrow's impatient airhead when a hitman is tossed from a hotel window -- and not above re-creating "The Godfather" shot-for-shot during one of Ben's violent dreams, "Analyze" invariably turns back to the offbeat chemistry between Crystal and De Niro.
Unfortunately, neither actor goes far enough with the premise's comic possibilities. De Niro's crying fits would be funnier if they were more convincing. Crystal seems to be holding back, though his frequent outbursts of indignation and defiance are the film's best moments. Chazz Palminteri plays Vitti's nemesis, but his performance is an even less interesting caricature than De Niro's.
ANALYZE THIS
Warner Bros.
in association with Village Roadshow Pictures
and NPV Entertainment
A Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures/Face/Tribeca production
Director: Harold Ramis
Producers: Paula Weinstein, Jane Rosenthal
Screenwriters: Peter Tolan, Harold Ramis, Kenneth Lonergan
Executive producers: Billy Crystal, Chris Brigham, Bruce Berman
Director of photography: Stuart Dryburgh
Production designer: Wynn Thomas
Editor: Christopher Tellefsen
Music: Howard Shore
Costume designer: Aude Bronson-Howard
Casting: Ellen Chenoweth, Laura Rosenthal
Color/stereo
Cast:
Paul Vitti: Robert De Niro
Ben Sobel: Billy Crystal
Laura MacNamara: Lisa Kudrow
Primo Sindone: Chazz Palminteri
Jelly: Joe Viterelli
Michael Sobel: Kyle Sabihy
Running time -- 103 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Glowing reviews and word-of-mouth from undemanding critics and audiences will revolve around the sometimes gutsy but often labored performances of leads Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal. Analyzing this shabbily tailored star vehicle, however, is not much fun.
Opening with a splashy prologue set in 1957, with New York gangster Paul Vitti (De Niro) narrating the story of an ill-fated meeting between organized crime's "big bosses," "Analyze" shifts to the present, when another underworld gathering has been called. Born and raised to lead his crime family, Vitti is a tough hombre, but he's having strangely vulnerable moments caused by the stress of taking over when his boss and mentor is gunned down.
With Vitti dodging real bullets during an explosive assassination scene, the film shifts breezily to the dreary therapy sessions of Ben Sobel (Crystal), a big-city psychiatrist with his own hang-ups. Decent and law-abiding but professionally unchallenged, Ben is divorced and about to remarry. Engaged to a Miami-based newscaster (Kudrow), he is out for a drive with the young son (Kyle Sabihy) from his first marriage when he rear-ends Vitti's limo.
Anxious to do the right thing, Ben insists on giving his business card to Vitti's bodyguard Jelly (Joe Viterelli), though it's clear the mobsters prefer to ignore the mishap. Soon after, Vitti seeks out the "head doctor" to deal with embarrassing emotional outbursts. While De Niro has a somewhat rough time shifting between macho mafioso and weepy sentimentalist, Crystal is more consistent as feisty Ben.
A few amusing, inspired sight gags keep one hoping that Ramis and crew will find an unpredictable approach and snappier rhythm, but schizoid storytelling undermines the project. Blackly humorous one moment -- Vitti ruins Ben's first attempt at marrying Kudrow's impatient airhead when a hitman is tossed from a hotel window -- and not above re-creating "The Godfather" shot-for-shot during one of Ben's violent dreams, "Analyze" invariably turns back to the offbeat chemistry between Crystal and De Niro.
Unfortunately, neither actor goes far enough with the premise's comic possibilities. De Niro's crying fits would be funnier if they were more convincing. Crystal seems to be holding back, though his frequent outbursts of indignation and defiance are the film's best moments. Chazz Palminteri plays Vitti's nemesis, but his performance is an even less interesting caricature than De Niro's.
ANALYZE THIS
Warner Bros.
in association with Village Roadshow Pictures
and NPV Entertainment
A Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures/Face/Tribeca production
Director: Harold Ramis
Producers: Paula Weinstein, Jane Rosenthal
Screenwriters: Peter Tolan, Harold Ramis, Kenneth Lonergan
Executive producers: Billy Crystal, Chris Brigham, Bruce Berman
Director of photography: Stuart Dryburgh
Production designer: Wynn Thomas
Editor: Christopher Tellefsen
Music: Howard Shore
Costume designer: Aude Bronson-Howard
Casting: Ellen Chenoweth, Laura Rosenthal
Color/stereo
Cast:
Paul Vitti: Robert De Niro
Ben Sobel: Billy Crystal
Laura MacNamara: Lisa Kudrow
Primo Sindone: Chazz Palminteri
Jelly: Joe Viterelli
Michael Sobel: Kyle Sabihy
Running time -- 103 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 2/22/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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