Analyze This
When cinema's history books are written, Robert De Niro would definitely go down as one of this generation's greatest actors. Great as he is, however, he won't be noted for his versatility. A cursory look at his filmography shows him typecast as (A) a mafioso/hoodlum (_Taxi Driver_, _GoodFellas_), (B) ordinary schmoe (_Deer Hunter_, _Falling in Love_), or (C) comic personality (_Brazil_, _Midnight Run_). Shakespeare, he isn't.
_Analyze This_, to my memory, is the first film he's made where he tries to reconcile all three personality types in one film. He's a tough gangster-type, who really is an ordinary schmoe, only to a comic extreme.
De Niro plays Paul Vitti, a tough mob boss who is starting to get panic attacks, days before a huge mafia "convention." He secretly pulls himself to a psychiatrist (Billy Crystal) who is terrified to get involved, and who is planning to get married that week. Complications ensue. Hilarity is blueprinted. The comic apex is how De Niro totally breaks down and cries like a baby in these sessions.
You'd think De Niro could pull it off. Not quite. The result is terribly disorienting. The opening scenes have him playing "Mr. Tough Guy," but later, we see he's _really_ somebody who has panic attacks and low self-image. Sure, it's funny, but it leaves a sour aftertaste. Are these two caricatures from the same person? I'm pretty good at suspending belief, but this I just don't buy.
Worse off, there's no real logical impetus as to why Vitti is getting scared, around now. He's had to deal with his adversaries his whole life, and certainly the fear that he would be killed by an assassin's bullet at any given moment carries far more tension than facing a competing mafioso-boss (Chazz Palminteri). And is there any guilt within him, for all the crimes he's committed in the past? No.
Because I can't accept this premise, the movie collapses. Simple as that.
Billy Crystal tries hard, but face it. This is a role _anybody_ could play. He's just the straight-man here, being continually usurped by De Niro and occasionally funny dialogue from his patients.
Did you know Lisa Kudrow is in this film? Wasted. Bill Macy? Wasted. Molly Shannon? I don't even remember who she played. A cameo from Tony Bennett? Been there, done that, burned the t-shirt.
The film's saving grace is played by heavyweight (literally) Joe Viterelli. In perhaps the most understated performance in the film, he singlehandedly is both menacing and endearingly comic, moreso than De Niro. He gets the laughs, and doesn't have to change his character to do it.
In summary, AT has a few laughs going for it, but if you're lucky, you've seen them in the previews. Previews are good like that. They rat-tat-tat the jokes and the assumption is that the film would do the same for the entire two hours. They don't carry the burden of actually making sense.
Nick Scale (1 to 10): 5
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