Video Review |
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Video Review |
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Last Updated 07/02/01
Email: robitai@our-town.com
"Analyze This"
The popularity of "The Sopranos" on HBO
attests to our fascination with people who don't live by the rules. Running that strange line between hard tragedy
and black humor, the weekly antics of Tony Soprano always shock and surprise. If you don't
have your fill of gangsterisms after the HBO dose, rent the 1999 hit "Analyze
This." Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal
make a great team.
This movie's not hard to analyze.
When New York gangster Paul Vitti, played by Robert De Niro, takes his turn
as head of the mob, he begins to have panic attacks.
He cries easily. He loses interest in his love life. And that's not a good thing for a gangster who's
supposed to inspire fear and respect. It's
clear that he's in need of mental health care, but he has to be discreet. His reputation is at stake, and the reputation of
The Family.
Fortunately for Vitti, Dr. Ben Sobol, (Billy Crystal) runs into the back of the
big, black Cadillac driven by Vitti's body guard, Jelly.
He innocently gives Jelly his business card, and the next thing you know, Dr. Ben's
on the mob's payroll as the attendant gangster shrink.
Paul Vitti's not a hard nut to crack. It's clear right from the start that his anxiety
attacks relate to his father's tragic death. Thirty five years earlier, he was gunned down
in an Italian restaurant while having pasta with the wife and children. Vitti senior never
knew what hit him. Paul Vitti suffers now
because he did nothing to prevent the tragedy back then.
How did he know that his father's gig was up? The bus boy wore pants that
were too tailored. Even as a child, Paul Vitti's sensitivity must have been overwhelming. Once Dr. Sobol makes the connection between
Vitti's panic attacks and the death of his father, the cure is just a gun shot away.
The gangsters trot Dr. Sobol off to kill him when they believe he's double-crossed
them to the Feds. Caught between the good
guys and the bad guys (and it's hard to tell the difference), Dr. Sobol ultimately puts
the needs of his patient first. He has no choice. Psychology
works fast, and just in time, so Dr. Sobol's life is spared. He has more excitement than he needs or wants.
If Vitti needs him, Vitti gets him. He
thinks nothing of kidnapping Dr. Sobol in the middle of the night. These gangster types
create constant problems. Dr. Sobol goes to
Miami to get married to Laura (Lisa Kudrow), and Vitti's hit men disrupt the wedding. It's only a dead body that they fling out the
window into the smoked salmon and capers. It's
not easy giving mental health advice to a guy who shoots first and asks questions later.
Most of the movie's good stuff comes from the conflicting nature of Paul Vitti's
character. He's a gangster with this
vulnerable side. It's complicated when you
see him hold a gun to Sobol's head just moments before he begins weeping uncontrollably. And lace all those dynamics with a dose of Billy
Crystal's understated comedy.
Billy Crystal plays on his cute vulnerability.
Maybe it's just the way he's playing the Sobol role. For a psychiatrist, Sobol's
pretty mixed up himself. He has daddy
problems, too. His father's an over-bearing nerd whose own psychiatric practice far
outshines his son's. He can't even take the
time off from his book tour to attend the ill-fated wedding.
There's not much here in the way of panoramic scenery or fancy film shots. On an average, the ratio of flying bullets to
purple language is about the same, and it's very high.
If you don't like to see bullets hitting hefty bodies, then be forewarned. Analyze This was rated R as a film.
Gangsters' slang can singe the ears. After
the first twenty or thirty explosive expletives, I began to get used to it. But I have New York gangsters in my family.
If you want distraction from the week's high stress, this movie's worth a shot. Nobody's ever going to call this film a classic,
but Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal fans should pay attention. Especially if you want to see one of them cry.