Married to the Mob (1988)

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Outrageous and Subtle this is a Comedy for the Anti-Adam-Sandler Crowd. Sophisticated, Witty, and Charming it is Everything that Most Modern Comedies Lack, just a Little bit of Intelligence Please. There isn't a Body Excretion Joke within a Mile of this Screwiness.The Cast is Superb with Michelle Pfeiffer and Dean Stockwell Standing Out and is so Good that poor Talentless Matthew Modine is so Glaringly Inept that it is Embarrassing. Director Jonathan Demme is in Fine Form and the Movie is a Garishly Grotesque Display as it Pokes Fun at the 1980's Outrageous Fashion Template Contemporaneously and that is a Sign of Genius and Second Sight.It is a quite Dry Comedy that Tends to be in Restraint and might have been Even Better Amped Up a Notch, but Maybe Not. It Works Well as is and most will have a Good Time with this Mob Comedy that Today 25 Years Later may seem Dated but Truth Wins Out, because this was made well in Advance of these Situations becoming so Familiar.Wonderfully Offbeat, Breezy, and Inoffensive, this along with the Director's Similarly Styled Something Wild (1986) would make a Great Double Feature.

this is no great shakes as a comedy or as anything else, there are maybe two or three lines in this whole film that will even make you laugh, and even those are pretty dumb. the whole thing is quite inoffensive, though, and agreeably dopey (in a rather knowing way). Married to the Mob is probably Demme's most sheerly beautiful film, physically - it has an exquisite look to it, capturing the mob milieu with an exquisite tackiness rivalled only by Scorsese's Casino. And Demme really knows how to put together a cast - there's not a deadbeat or a lame, Susan Clark-type actor in the bunch, and while they really have very little to work with here, they make the whole dumb enterprise just that much more likable. And Dean Stockwell is great.

In my attempts to catch up with films I did not see during their original theatrical release, I have reached the point of viewing "Married to the Mob", a film that I have heard about, but have never seen until to-day, some 22 years post-release. Was in no hurry to see it, and did not know what to expect. On the VHS cover it was called "...Godfather on laughing gas"...by one reviewer. Well, it was hardly that intense. The comedy in this film is rather subtle for the most part...because this film is not necessarily populated by comedians. But...I was pleasantly surprised. Michelle Pfeiffer gave a pretty good performance as a vulnerable mob wife who is, very deep inside, a decent caring person. Her husband is whacked by a mob boss, who immediately begins to make moves on Pfeiffer, despite the fact that he is married. His wife is a jealous, insecure basket case who would rather see him dead than see him with another woman. Pfeiffer moves away and tries to start all over...but to not much avail. But she does not know that the mob boss is the target of the FBI and other agencies who want to nail him...and at first they wanted to also nail her, until she unknowingly falls for one of the agents who discovers the truth about her innocence. The film has its moments, and I guess there are some funny moments in this piece of celluloid, but not enough to really qualify it as a "comedy". No side-splitting humor, just funny characters and situations that are not fully taken advantage of. Pfeiffer's portrayal is one of the reasons to watch the film...and the jealous wife of the mob boss has to be seen to be believed. Not a bad flick overall, and I did not think I was going to like it at all. But I did like it...mind you, I said "Like"...not "Love". It is a worthwhile watch...and you don't need to be "Married to the Mob" to have a little fun...thank goodness it has not come to that just yet.

The only problem with Married to the Mob is that it is not funny. It dresses up exactly like a romantic comedy, but almost nothing that happens is funny. But if you can look at it as a film where almost nothing funny happens, then you'll have a really good time. It's a glitzy mob film, too, as per the title. Extremely glitzy. But the director, Jonathan Demme, is one of the few prevailing cult directors who fully and completely embraced the 1980s in his work from that decade rather than understandably pretending it was still the 1970s.The opening credits combine 1980s animation, Italian-Americanism and mise-en-scene lathered on top of each other at once. From there, despite 1980sness, it feels about right. The lighting by Demme's frequent cinematographer Tak Fujimoto and jukebox soundtrack rife with widely varying pop and alternative jams are gaudy and that is indeed controlled and nuanced as part of the atmosphere. Demme is good at colorful instant characterizations in his visual and sometimes seemingly impetuous composition of a fun mix of styles, a plot that could've gone any which way, where a smooth FBI agent, played by a very bland Matthew Modine, trying to infiltrate a mafia family, sees a chance when a gun moll, played with come-hither allure by Michelle Pfeiffer, tries to leave the criminal lifestyle after her trigger-man husband, in just what you would hope for in an Alec Baldwin performance, is wacked.The way it goes works for awhile, because Demme seems to have a firm hand on the wheel. He knows the significance of showing us the very subjective and relatable life-at-home scenes with Pfeiffer, as well as her cares and longings as a morally conflicted mom, although her relationship with son Joey is taken a bit for granted. What mobster's son is listening to party-pooper mom when dad's boss, played with Dean Stockwell's trademark naturalness and by far the scene-stealing stand-out of the cast, is giving him such awesome gifts? On the whole though, Demme's lathered-on stylizations are easily viewed as a novel take on a fun crime thriller tale.Ultimately, though, we find we've been going the wrong way, because inevitably, Modine and Pfeiffer have to fall in love. That's not inherently bad, and every here and there it actually feels bearable, but as a romantic subplot, it is not handled interestingly, or well, hardly at all because it hopscotches across various sundry clichés, which fulfill the initial expectation of a cheesy 1980s date flick, and for that audience, I think it has just the right impact. But for someone who has found themselves genuinely interested in the story and the aesthetic approach, it is a let-down into state of tedium.So it's a decent movie with huge missteps at certain points, but as a date movie or a nostalgic piece for those who grew up in the '80s, perhaps saw a lot of date movies in the '80s, the entertainment value is not as likely to fluctuate, except for said deficit in true laughs. There maybe a few scoffs, and it's very broadly tongue-in-cheek, but I wouldn't leave the comedy aisle with the high hopes with which I'd have initially entered. Whatever the case anyway, there are additional joys in bit roles by great character actors who have by now begun to fade, like Nancy Travis, Joan Cusack and Oliver Platt.