Saturday, December 27, 2014


Movie Review

August 20, 1999

FILM REVIEW; This Refined Briton, To Wed a Mafia Doll, Goes to a Trattoria . . .

Published: August 20, 1999

Try as he might, Michael Felgate (Hugh Grant), a cultivated, mild-mannered Englishman engaged to the daughter of a genial Mafia chieftain, can't seem to deliver the phrase ''forget about it'' with the sinister heft that his future in-laws can. Michael's inability to give ''fuhgeddaboutit'' and other spicier phrases a suitably streetwise punch is one of the cute running of jokes of ''Mickey Blue Eyes,'' a lightweight comedy that has more than enough laughs to justify its silly, scatterbrained premise.

The role of Mickey, an ingenuous English twit who runs a snooty auction house in midtown Manhattan, fits Mr. Grant almost too smoothly. Bringing his signature bashful-boy mannerisms to the role -- the half stammer, the tilted eyebrows, the bowed choirboy lips curled into a beseeching little smile as his blue eyes simultaneously implore and twinkle -- the actor makes Michael, a k a his Mafia nickname, Mickey Blue Eyes, an appealing, if totally synthetic creation.

As usual in Mr. Grant's screen performances, beneath the surface wimpiness and ineptitude lies a core of unflappability. Michael reacts to the most excruciating embarrassments, like an ill-concealed gun that continually slips down his pants leg onto a restaurant floor, with a quip, accompanied by a weak, helpless smile. Hollywood's other Mr. Grant (Cary) had the same gift for maintaining his dignity in the midst of abject humiliation. If Hugh Grant lacks the dramatic range of his forerunner, his comic timing is comparably suave.

Oh, that Mafia! The movie, directed by Kelly Makin from a screenplay by Adam Scheinman and Robert Kuhn, is only the latest Hollywood product to portray mobsters as a bunch of almost lovable but deadly buffoons. Here, they're sort of like grizzly bears noisily rattling around in an urban jungle theme park. Although the beasts have been put there for show, the signs warn you to pet them at your peril.

Adding a frisson of weirdness is the fact that several of the actors playing mobsters also have continuing roles in the far more serious and substantial television series ''The Sopranos,'' and at certain moments their familiarity makes the movie feel like a spoof of a spoof of a spoof. Further enriching the referential Mafia mix is James Caan's appearance as a more mature, much less jumpy descendant of Sonny Corleone.

Michael stumbles into this clan when he falls in love with Gina Vitale (Jeanne Tripplehorn), a surprisingly genteel Mafia princess (she teaches school), who refuses to marry him because she fears her father Frank (Mr. Caan) and his pals will corrupt him. Michael forges ahead anyway and visits Frank's restaurant ''La Trattoria'' in Little Italy. Searching for the men's room, he opens the wrong door, sees a man imprisoned in the restaurant's freezer, and, mystified, greets him cheerily before proceeding on.

Gina's fears quickly prove well-grounded. In the movie's funniest moments, Frank and his pals trick poor Michael into using his business for money laundering by having him auction off a mobster's hilariously awful religious paintings in which Jesus and his disciples are gun-toting gangsters. One sale involves a batty old lady whose misconstruing of the predetermined bidding signals leads to disaster.

Much of ''Mickey Blue Eyes'' is little more than a series of stitched-together gags. One of the funniest, set in a Chinese restaurant, involves the secreting of an intimate message into a fortune cookie that is delivered to the wrong party. In another, Michael, after an accidental homicide, is asked if he has any plastic bags. Returning from the kitchen a moment later he is clutching a sandwich bag like a good little puppy.

Eventually, ''Mickey Blue Eyes'' accelerates into a frenzied farce whose convoluted plot involves Michael's faking his own death during his wedding celebration. As the tempo accelerates and it turns frantic, the movie loses much of its charm and becomes a comedy machine that confuses humor with desperately pumped-up adrenaline.

''Mickey Blue Eyes'' is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has strong language and some gore.


Directed by Kelly Makin; written by Adam Scheinman and Robert Kuhn; director of photography, Donald E. Thorin; edited by David Freeman; music by Basil Poledouris; production designer, Gregory Keen; produced by Elizabeth Hurley and Charles Mulvehill; released by Castle Rock Entertainment. Running time: 102 minutes. This film is rated PG-13.

WITH: Hugh Grant (Michael Felgate), James Caan (Frank Vitale), Jeanne Tripplehorn (Gina Vitale), Burt Young (Vito Graziosi), James Fox (Philip Cromwell) and Joe Viterelli (Vinnie).