Married to the Mob

Married to the Mob follows Michelle Pfeiffer’s Angela de Marco, the wife of a low level gangster (Alec Baldwin’s Frank), as she decides to start over with her young son in New York City, with complications ensuing as her past eventually catches up to her and her new love interest (Matthew Modine’s Mike Downey). There’s little doubt that Married to the Mob improves steadily as it progresses, as the picture’s first half, though certainly entertaining, doesn’t quite manage to live up to the effectiveness of the various performances – with Pfeiffer’s personable turn matched by an eclectic supporting cast that includes Dean Stockwell, Oliver Platt, and Mercedes Ruehl. (The latter’s go-for-broke performance as a paranoid mob wife remains an ongoing highlight, to be sure.) It’s only as the action shifts to NYC that Married to the Mob begins to adopt a more palpably engrossing vibe, with the escalating narrative paving the way for an impressively enthralling climax wherein the various plot threads brilliantly converge. Filmmaker Jonathan Demme’s predictably quirk-fueled approach to Barry Strugatz and Mark R. Burns’ screenplay does, in addition, ensure that the picture’s packed with enjoyably off-the-wall bits of random silliness (eg Mike’s inexplicable, Pee-wee Hermanesque morning routine), which contributes heavily to Married to the Mob‘s overall success and cements its place as a top-tier ’80s comedy.

***1/2 out of ****