Review: Married to the Mob

Blu-ray: Married to the Mob (1988)

Directed by ex-Roger Corman employee Jonathan Demme, 1988’s Married to the Mob stars Michelle Pfeiffer as Angie De Marco; curly, dark haired ‘Noo Yawrk’ wife of Alec Baldwin’s Frank ‘The cucumber’ De Marco. Along with Dean Stockwell as Tony ‘The Tiger’ Russo; the mafia Don and Frank’s boss, Mercedes Ruehl as his insanely jealous wife Connie and Matthew Modine as Mike Downey, the FBI agent sent to investigate them.

This is a quirky little film, a romantic comedy that will make you laugh but also has a slight undertone of something quite sinister going on under the surface.

Frank has been servicing Tony’s girlfriend in secret, and finding them in flagrante, murders them. Angie is left alone with her son, and hating everything about the mafia, especially Tony, who makes it clear he wants her to be his next ‘girlfriend’, so she donates her house and its contents to charity and moves to a poor neighbourhood in Noo Yawrk. Yes, all the mafiosi ladies tawwk in that particular Noooo Yawrk accent (just so you know who and what they are). Mike Downey is investigating the murders and hopes to finally put away the Frank the Don, but to do that, he needs a pathway in, and that could be Angie.

Modine seems a bit of an ill fit for this part, he’s obviously ‘kooky’ as we see from his Peewee Hermanesque morning routine of dressing, and again that quirkiness between Mike and his partner Ed (Oliver Platt) but it works.

He’s obviously younger and has a sense of innocence about him, and is, as always, charming in a cocky sort of way. He knows Angie is genuine and really doesn’t want to be ‘Married to the Mob’. It’s also a funny movie, Connie, Tony’s much taller and jealous wife, bursts into scenes on the lookout for him to great effect. I think a good way to describe it is… charming. A little kooky but ultimately a nice way to spend 2 hours.

One noticeable thing about this new Radiance Films release is the menu on the actual disc. A pet hate is having a list of extras -and just seeing the title with no explanation of what they are. Radiance Films gives GOOD menu, over to our right-hand side with titles AND explanations of what they are, with key scenes playing in the background and lovely graphics, a lot of films companies could take a leaf from their book!

The extras themselves are my favourite kind, discussions by the makers and actors on the making of and memories about the film, rather than a dry, overlong, academic toll on why and wherefore.

A heads up for Renaissance, if you need a commentary for a film you’re releasing, why look no further than the people at 60MW!