Analyze This (1999)
A Review by Christian Pyle
When mob boss Paul Vitti (Robert De Niro) has a panic attack, he seeks therapy from psychiatrist Ben Sobol (Billy Crystal); hilarity ensues. Director Harold Ramis' new comedy "Analyze This" has lots of fun with this premise as the very different worlds of Paul and Ben collide. There are subplots to keep the plot moving: Paul is about to be rubbed out by a rival gangster (Chazz Palminteri); Ben is about to marry Lisa Kudrow.
The plot is interestingly similar to HBO's new series, "The Sopranos." There, also, a mob boss has a panic attack and starts seeing a therapist. While "The Sopranos" aspires to realism, "Analyze This" offers a cartoonish sketch of the mob.
However, despite its distance from reality, "Analyze This" is great fun. De Niro obviously enjoys the self-parody in playing a comic gangster (I wonder if Brando got the same charge out of "The Freshman"). Although he rarely does comedies, De Niro has considerable comic skills. His Paul Vitti is as funny when he's vulnerable as he is when he's threatening.
Crystal's job is to react to the outrageous actions of Vitti and his slow-witted henchman Jelly (Joe Viterelli). (In this regard, the De Niro-Crystal interplay is something like Crystal's scenes with Jack Palance in "City Slickers"). Actually, that's our job, too-and there's plenty to laugh at: Ben rear-ends a mob car, and the trunk pops open to reveal a man bound-and-gagged; Ben's wedding is interrupted by a man being thrown off a balcony; Ben has to represent Paul at a mob conference. As a general rule, I don't like Crystal's movies-too soppy for my tastes-but I laughed long and loud during "Analyze This."
Grade: B
© 1999 Christian L. Pyle <http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Christian+Pyle>
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