Fuhgedaboudit... no, really

reviewed Sun, 22 Aug 1999 00:09:27 EDT

Hugh Grant is loaded with charm -- he practically oozes it. In his adorably fumbling way, he could sell water to a drowning man, and he very nearly sells Mickey Blue Eyes, at least for the first half of the movie. I didn't particularly want to see this movie; I just wanted to get out of the house, and Stephen invited me to this. So I went, and for a little while I was actually enjoying the movie despite myself -- there are some funny set pieces. But even charming Hugh can't carry a movie so weighed down with melodrama, pointless and laboriously set-up gags, and sheer hokiness all the way to the end. But hey -- though I, in my snobby intellectual-elite, waffle-stomping, pointy-headed, latte-drinking, subtitle-reading way, rolled my eyes at the ending, a bunch of people in the audience applauded. So go figure.

Mostly Mickey Blue Eyes suffers from bad writing, but it's also the victim of poor timing, what with the much funnier Analyze This already out (there are actors and even scenes that are identical) and with mafiana in general being somewhat passe. You feel you've seen this all before. The "fuhgedaboudit" conversation? Been there -- Donnie Brasco. James Caan's softy gangster? Done that -- Honeymoon in Vegas.

Hugh Grant as the Brit caught up in mob intrigue is fine, though pretty much the same as always, and he's always wearing lovely blue shirts that really bring out his eyes, but Jeanne Tripplehorn as his fiancee is shrill and immensely irritating. Everyone else either overacts shamelessly or sleepwalks through their role (I've said it before and I'll say it again: Why hire someone as funny as, say, Scott Thompson, and then not let him be funny?).

So I'd skip this one, unless, like Stephen, you have a Hugh Grant thing or, god forbid, you have a Jeanne Tripplehorn thing. If you really need to laugh at the mob, call John Gotti in prison. No, just kidding, rent My Blue Heaven or Analyze This instead. Speaking of renting, I just watched A Life Less Ordinary and Kingpin and was pleasantly surprised by both. Neither are masterpieces by any stretch, but they're both amusing and entertaining.

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