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Poster (c) Warner Bros.
Billy Crystal is Dr. Ben Sobel, psychiatrist. He’s rather popular. Robert De Niro is Paul Vitti, gangster. He’s rather deadly. However, when his friend gets killed, he starts getting “conflicted” and can’t kill anyone now. He also can’t “perform” with his mistress in bed. So he goes to Sobel for help. Initially Sobel declines, but “something” makes his mind. Well, that’s about it.
To me, it seemed like everyone tried too hard. Crystal tried too hard to not act funny, but he’s a comedian! He’s supposed to be funny. About the only time he seemed to get into his groove was the funniest part-at the convention. That’s the time I laughed most. Actually, that was the only prolonged and lingering laugh. The rest of the time, the script seemed to be self-conscious and wanted us to know that “we’re trying to be funny! Laugh!” Now, I’m not saying that I didn’t laugh at all, there were quite a few “ha!”’s, but I think a lot of them were forced. I’ve read rave reviews about it, but I don’t really understand why. De Niro obviously enjoys comedy, and he wasn’t bad, but his crying fits seemed quite fake and I didn’t believe them in a bit. For movies to work, you need to be able to believe what they’re trying to produce. As I was watching this movie, I felt like I was watching another version of The Whole Nine Yards. Except that one had certain nebbish believability. I couldn’t think that Crystal could successfully impersonate a gangster or that someone like Lisa Kudrow would marry him, which brings me to my next point.
Too many thin characters. Kudrow was sadly wasted, with her being billed as the third one but about three scenes (Jennifer Aniston from Office Space, anyone?). It would seem like that she would be able to have a larger role. Crystal’s son Michael (Kyle Sabihy) was OK, since we knew not to expect him later. But, with everyone in the crime families, I couldn’t keep everyone straight. Except, of course, for Jelly. Jelly, played by Joe Viterelli, is easily the best character in this movie. Although not much depth, he is great to watch. Also thrown in there somewhere are Chazz Palminteri and Molly Shannon (?). Thanks for really letting me get to know the characters, guys!
I do have something good to say about the script, though. It actually made me like the main characters, no matter how two-dimensional they may be. Well, maybe not when De Niro was crying, but all the other times, I was right with them. Lots of scripts nowadays can’t do that, so they resort to tasteless jokes to try to win audiences over. Most of the jokes were nice and clean (though they snuck a few dirty ones under the radar).
Analyze This is an occasionally funny movie with lots of down points but some uppers, also.
Rated R for language, a scene of sexuality and some violence.
Review Date: December 30, 2002