Friday, December 10, 2010

Married To The Mob


Michelle Pfeiffer is married to gangster Alec Baldwin who is killed by his boss Dean Stockwell. Moving to Manhattan to get away from her old life, she is followed by Stockwell and put under surveillance by FBI agent Matthew Modine. Also starring Chis Isaak in a small part and directed by Jonathan Demme.

This is the kind of small, quirky film that Demme was very good at. Something Wild is another one. Married To The Mob's story isn't that much to brag about - I can only imagine what some hack director would have done with it, but Demme rather goes for the small details, creating something with real charm, and never taking the film too seriously. The shootout at the end is right on the edge of parody. Pfeiffer and Modine are great together and Dean Stockwell, an underestimated actor, has a lot of fun in his part. It's too bad Demme seems to have lost his light touch after he made Silence of the Lambs, doing Important Message Films and when trying to return to his old roots making one of the worst movies ever, The Truth About Charlie, a remake of Charade.

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