Analyze This film review

certificate_15

ANALYZE THIS

Humour and the Mob would not seem, on the face of it, obvious associates. Suggest such an idea to the man who has been Vito Corleone and Al Capone and you might almost expect a response reminiscent of erstwhile Goodfellas colleague Joe Pesci: Funny? You think I'm funny? Funny how...?

But Robert De Niro is nevertheless putting his proud heritage on the line by leading opposite Billy Crystal in the second Mafia comedy (Hollywood always does things in twos, remember?) in as many months.

Brought up through the hierarchy of a major New York crime family after seeing his father gunned down at an early age, Paul Vitti (De Niro) - now a father himself - is on the cusp of assuming top dog status. But responsibilities, doubts and pressures are taking their toll, and as his crucial powerplay in a roomful of Mafia top brass looms, Vitti is getting the jitters.

Which is where Ben Sobol (Crystal) comes in. Ben also has paternally-oriented issues, and as a psychiatrist attempting to ply a decent trade in the shadow of his attention-grabbing, media-friendly shrink father, he knows all about it.

But when Ben prangs the car of Vitti's bodyguard Jelly (Joseph Viterelli), his plans for a quiet life with fiancee Laura (Kudrow) evaporate.Because Vitti wants therapy. On tap, day or night. And Ben's the guy with the couch.

But how honest can you be with a man whose experience with horses involves neither equestrian nor gambling pursuits, and whose choice of footwear is generally limited to alligator slip-ons or concrete boots.

There's actually a lot at stake here for De Niro: over-egging the slapstick spoofery on what has previously been a stock-in-trade is the Leslie Nielsen route (and that way darkness lies), besides which former caper outing We're No Angels (with Sean Penn) is a episode best left forgotten.

Thankfully, director Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day, Multiplicity) knows how to deliver a rounded comedy concept. So De Niro and Crystal both have room to manoeuvre without embarrassing themselves and, although farce cruises close to the surface, they're never asked to resort to caricature.

Chazz Palminteri, Kudrow and Viterelli support well - along with some great looking mobsters plucked Scorsese-style from the street - and alongside a nicely honed script that's witty and edgy, you get the bonus of all concerned rising to De Niro's peerless performance standards: the result being a rewarding blend of class and laughs.