by Curtis Edmonds -- blueduck@hsbr.org
The joke goes like this: What do you get when you cross a lawyer and a mobster? Someone who makes you an offer you can't understand.
What do you get when you cross a psychiatrist with a mobster? Well, instead of a clever punch line, you get Analyze This, with Billy Crystal as the neurotic psychiatrist and Robert DeNiro as his patient, a gangland leader suffering from anxiety attacks and difficulties in managing his inner rage. It's a cross between genres -- Goodfellas meets What About Bob? -- and a cross between a legitimately funny movie and a dull, lifeless plodding mess. (Which makes it a double-cross, sort of.)
Analyze This is one of those movies where you don't need character development. Crystal is the same character here that he plays in his best movies -- City Slickers, let's say, and Throw Momma From the Train -- an ordinary, wise-ass schmuck carried on by circumstances he can't control. DeNiro, on the other hand, plays his part like a cartoon character of his previous performances. (To be charitable, this is probably the best he can do in a script that has him bawling at Merrill Lynch commercials.) The script even does us the favor of having Crystal recognize DeNiro from TV, so their relationship doesn't need to go through the initial development stage, either.
The good part of the movie -- the only good part of the movie -- is the banter between Crystal and DeNiro. It's sharp, funny dialogue between two master actors. It's great to see how they challenge each other, how they try to outdo each other, and how they manage to make it funny. At one point, Crystal, in a hurry to get DeNiro out of his vacation, offers to see him exclusively. DeNiro considers this: "You want me to clear your schedule for you?"
"NO!' Crystal blurts.
And the whole movie is like that. Crystal tries to use psychology to control DeNiro, DeNiro tries to use force to control Crystal... it's a great comic tug-of-war, and it makes Analyze This worth seeing, or at least renting.
But overall...
Analyze This forces us to ask the question: What has happened to the American comedy? Can we make comedies in America anymore? Have we lost our comic heritage? If Analyze This is the best comedy of the year -- and it may well be -- is there hope for movie comedies, or must the comedy genre disappear over the horizon like the Western?.
Think about it. We're making three kinds of comedies in America right now: the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan romantic comedies, the teenage gross-out comedies, and Eddie Murphy comedies. That's it. Robin Williams and Jim Carrey are busy doing introspective special effects movies, Steve Martin and Bill Murray are doing small parts in smaller movies nowadays, and Mel Brooks has dropped off the face of the earth. The funniest actor working in Hollywood right now may very well be Jackie Chan. Think about it.
Because real comedies like Analyze This and In and Out and The Big Lebowski are so rare these days, it's sad to see what happens when they fail. Analyze This fails because it can't go far beyond the pairing of its two top characters. There's nothing to link the conversations between Crystal and DeNiro together. Half the movie is Crystal being pulled away from whatever it is he's doing to have another conversation with DeNiro. It's almost as if Crystal is a yo-yo and the only suspense in the movie is how far he will be able to get away before DeNiro tugs on his string again. Although the movie elicits a good supporting performance from Joe Viterelli as DeNiro's messenger, it wastes performances from Lisa Kudrow and Chazz Palminteri as Crystal's fiancee and DeNiro's rival, respectively.
There's nothing really wrong with Analyze This. It's a decent enough comedy with two great comic actors strutting their stuff. It's got a few laughs, here and there, which is great. The problem is that there aren't enough laughs, anywhere, and that's a problem that one movie can't solve by itself.
Rating: B
-- Curtis D. Edmonds blueduck@hsbr.org
"First, you show up. Then you see what happens."
-- Napoleon Bonaparte
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