Director Jonathan Demme’s 1988 sweet and sophisticated Mob movie Married to the Mob stars a drop-dead gorgeous Michelle Pfeiffer, who turns in another winning performance as Angela deMarco, a woman who finds herself in mortal peril after her Mafia husband Frank ‘The Cucumber’ deMarco (Alec Baldwin) is iced by the Mob.
Dean Stockwell plays the Godfather, Frank’s boss, a lustful Mafia kingpin seeking to claim and so makes her an offer she can refuse. But luckily she falls into the arms of nice FBI agent Mike Downey (Matthew Modine) who has gone undercover as Angela’s neighbour when the FBI put her under surveillance and soon falls for her.
Director Demme turns in an outrageous, fast-moving, highly agreeable romantic comedy crime thriller from his best period. It may have fewer jokes than his similar spirited Something Wild (1986) but it still funny and charming.
Dean Stockwell and Matthew Modine make their mark in amusingly eccentric performances, but film belongs to the engagingly glamorous Pfeiffer at the peak of her appeal. Also in the strong, quirky cast are Mercedes Ruehl, Trey Wilson, Joan Cusack, Al Lewis, Nancy Travis, Charles Napier, Tracey Walter, Paul Lazar and Chris Isaak
It is wittily written by Barry Strugatz and Mark R Burns, shot stylishly by Tak Fujimoto, produced by Kenneth Utt and Edward Saxon, and set designed by Kristi Zea. Talking Heads frontman David Byrne’s music score is good fun.
There is some f-word swearing, female nudity and three sequences of gun violence, with some bloodshed.
Jonathan Demme died on 26 April 2017, aged 73. Jodie Foster, star of his The Silence of the Lambs (1991), paid tribute: ‘He was pure energy’.
Dean Stockwell died on 7 aged 85. He was Oscar nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and won the New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Supporting Actor. It was his only Oscar nomination.
Michelle Pfeiffer was a Golden Globe nominee for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical.
© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 5351
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