A Gangster In Therapy
 Apr 1st, 2001
(Apr 9th, 2001)
Advantages:
Crystal and De Niro together
Disadvantages:
See opinion
Recommendable:
Yes
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  the_mad_cabbie
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Diagnosed with an aggressive cancer of the right lung on my 58th birthday (14th July) So not really ...
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Review rated by 36 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
~ ~ This comedy was released in 1999, and brings together two unlikely talents in Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal.
I say unlikely, as De Niro would not exactly have been an obvious first choice for a comedy film of this type.
The film is directed by Harold Ramis, who also directed Caddyshack, Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day. ~ ~ It starts out as though it’s going to be another regular gangster drama, and the opening shots are of a big “Family” meeting of Mafia bosses in New York in 1957.
The meeting goes dramatically wrong when it is busted by the F.B.I., and there has not been another meeting since. Until now.
We are then introduced to De Niro’s character, Mafia boss Paul Vitti, who doesn’t feel any too happy about this planned new big meeting, and whose growing feelings of anxiety and insecurity are intensified when he narrowly escapes death from assassination.
Billy Crystal plays psychiatrist Ben Sobel, who quite literally runs into the Vitto Family when he rear ends their limo. (the boot of which happens to contain a gangster destined to be “rubbed out”.)
Paul Vitti then decides that the answer to his problems lies in therapy, and he enrols the reluctant Sobel as his shrink.
All that is on Sobel’s mind is his impending marriage to TV presenter Laura (Lisa Kudrow) down in Miami, and the last thing in life he wants is a deranged and emotional Mafia boss as a patient.
~ ~ The therapy scenes with De Niro and Crystal are simply hilarious.
De Niro is so used to playing gangsters by this stage of his career that he could practically play the part by rote, but this is a new departure.
Here he shows that criminals have feelings and emotions too, that need to be expressed, worked out, and resolved.
There are some great “one liners” from both De Niro and Crystal during the therapy scenes.
The opening session ends up with Vitto saying to Sobel, “Oh. Just one thing. I go fag, you die.”
In another comic moment, Sobel screams at Vitto in frustration, “What do you want me to do. Turn you into a happy, well adjusted gangster?”
Vitto is prone to bursting into tears at the slightest provocation, (not accepted behaviour for a Mafia boss!) and there is another highly comical scene where he gets all “emotional” at a TV commercial for life insurance, while preparing for the big Mob meeting.
Along the way, we see Sobel’s marriage to Laura interrupted by the Mob on two separate occasions, one where a gangster is thrown from a hotel balcony and lands in the buffet set up for the wedding guests.
Sobel is then blackmailed by the F.B.I., who have been shadowing Vitto, into wearing a “wire” so they can get details on the upcoming big meeting.
The big meeting itself is pure comic genius, with Sobel forced to stand in for the “incapacitated” Vitto, and to introduce himself as Vitto’s “mouthpiece”.
The ensuing conversation between Sobel and the rival gang bosses is so funny, it would be worth watching the film for this scene alone. ~ ~ There are some good performances too from some of the supporting cast, particularly the deadpan Joe Viterelli, who plays Vitto’s right-hand-man Jelly, and also from actor Chazz Palminteri, who plays rival gang boss Joe Viterelli almost to perfection.
~ ~ For me, it is the interaction between De Niro and Crystal that makes this film so memorable. It came in for a little stick from some critics, but I think that it is handled superbly by director Amis, and is a real showstopper.
De Niro has since gone on to play a comedy role again, as the father in this year’s comedy release, “Meet The Parents.”
I re-watched “Analyse This” on Sky Premier only last night, and have now transferred it to video.
It’s one I will return to and view again.
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![Analyze This [DVD] [1999]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78548187.jpg)
by (6%):
28.09.2004 19:18
I loved this film but then again I love almost everything De Niro does.
05.08.2003 16:26
yours was better than the person's b4 you
29.06.2001 01:15
a good detailed op. (yet another one!, r u trying to hog all the top VH spaces! grr!) cant say it was one of the best films i have seen, as it was a bit too slow moving for me, but still funny. great op. naomi :)