Married to the Mob's poster

Married to the Mob

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Siskoid's avatar
Siskoid
If you don't mind people getting whacked in your comedies, might I recommend Married to the Mob? What I remembered most from this when I saw it on TV long ago was the big 80s hair. Revisiting it today, there's a lot more to like. I guess the pun to be made is that it's whacky, but zany is perhaps the better epithet. Michelle Pfeiffer plays Angela, a mob widow with a good soul who wants out of the Family, but they (mostly Dean Stockwell's boss and his jealous wife) won't leave her alone. She falls for Matthew Modine's awkward FBI agent who's initially working her, but obviously falls for her too. The humor mostly comes from character, but director Jonathan Demme also populates the film with odd restaurants, clubs and salons. In fact, I think that's probably the best thing about the movie - its world feels lived in. Characters have pre-existing relationships and well-worn mannerisms, quirks that need not be explained. The end credits with its wealth of deleted scenes gives it extra richness. Add a sweet romance, some non-obtrusive mother-son stuff, and use the gangland murders as a background that, like in Angela's dilemma, keeps rearing its ugly head but isn't what the movie WANTS to be about, and you've got an underrated piece of 80s film. It's not gonna win any awards from a plotting standpoint, but it does take chances with tone and comes out ahead. At the very least, it's cute.
Camille Deadpan's avatar
Camille Deadpan
So many scenes didn't make it into the movie that Jonathan Demme decided to place them at the end during the credits, to retell the story.