Rating: 

The Info

Directed by: Harold Ramis
Written by: Ken Lonergan, Peter Tolan, Harold Ramis
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Billy Crystal, Lisa Kudrow, Joe Viterelli, Chazz Palminteri
Produced by: Jane Rosenthal, Paula Weinstein

The Basic Plot

A mob boss starts getting panic attacks, and goes to see a psychiatrist for help, with ensuing hilarity

The Review

    To the average film fan, Harold Ramis is best known as Egon Spengler in the Ghostbusters films. Many people don't realize that he is also the writer of such no-brainer classic comedies as Meatballs, Caddyshack and Animal House. While he has had his share of flops (Caddyshack II), several of his films have risen above the immature comedy of his early work, notably Groundhog Day and now Analyze This (which he also directed).

    Ramis specializes in writing parts specifically for the actors interested in the film. Anyone familiar with Bill Murray's flippant comedic style will notice it in his characters from Stripes, Ghostbusters and Meatballs. In similar fashion, neither Billy Crystal, Robert DeNiro nor Lisa Kudrow are stretching their acting abilities much in Analyze This. Kudrow plays an annoying, whiny airhead (Phoebe from Friends), DeNiro is playing a mobster (any number of films) and Crystal has the intellectual, sarcastic character (most of his characters). Ramis succeeds in taking the actors strengths' and attempting to put a new spin on them.

     Paul Vitti (DeNiro) has problems. He is the head of a mob family, yet he is starting to have panic attacks. At a crucial time in the relationship between his and the other mob families of New York, he decides to seek professional help. Due to a traffic altercation between one of his men and Dr. Ben Sobel (Crystal). he picks Sobel to straighten him out... quietly and quickly. Sobel is at first reluctant but finds it hard to say no to the powerful mobster, treating him in the end. The treatment coincides with Sobel's wedding to Laura MacNamara (Kudrow), a local television personality.

    Ramis keeps the humour coming at a steady pace. He concentrates mostly on the relationship between Sobel and Vitti. The other characters are given limited screen time and material to work with. Chazz Palminteri show up as Primo, a rival mobster who is a bit dim, yet aside from a few brief appearances, has only one real scene. DeNiro makes an intelligent choice in playing Vitti straight. Vitti is almost as serious and cold as any mobster DeNiro has played, yet he is the film's funniest character. Vitti's reactions to the comments and questions of Dr. Sobel are often hilarious. The problem is that the hilarity only lasts a few seconds, and then the film returns to a tamer level of laughs. It never achieves the comedic heights it hints at in the ads, but it gives us a good time and quite a few laughs.

copyright - Tim Chandler

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