Analyze This (1999)
director: harold ramis
cast: robert de niro, billy crystal, lisa kudrow, chazz palminteri, kresimir novakovic, bart tangredi, michael straka, joseph rigano, joe viterelli, richard c. castellano, molly shannon, max casella, frank pietrangolare, kyle sabihy, bill macy
Funnyman
director Harold Ramis scores big with this hilarious teaming of Billy Crystal
and Robert De Niro. Crystal plays a psychiatrist that is reluctantly drawn into
De Niro’s dark world of organized crime by being strong-armed into treating
him. All the while, Crystal really just wants to get through his wedding ceremony
and ease the many rough spots in his own life. De Niro is having “panic attacks”
(but don’t say that in front of him!) about an upcoming mob meeting of the greatest
underworld figures, including Chaz Palminteri and Tony Darrow, who have been
trying to kill De Niro along the way.
De
Niro and Crystal, being two very different actors, each approached this project
with a fair amount of trepidation. Crystal feared that De Niro would turn it
into a violent “Goodfellas” type of story, while De Niro was concerned that
Crystal would want it to be a light comedy. Martin Scorsese turned down the
directing duties at one point. It then seemed that Crystal and De Niro would
co-direct (!?) the film, but Harold Ramis stepped in to put things right. The
talented Ramis perfectly balanced De Niro and Crystal to create a comic masterpiece.
While there are a few “stupid” jokes, most of the film is well done and intelligently funny. The rough edges of De Niro’s mobster are best exemplified in a scene where Crystal is trying to explain Freud’s oedipal complex to him. After learning that Oedipus killed his father and married his own mother, De Niro shakes his head in disbelief, commenting, “Those fucking Greeks!” Amazingly, the film provided this reviewer with a countless series of chuckles throughout, as well as a good hard laugh just about every five minutes! Funny, engaging and with characters that you actually care about, “Analyze This” is proof that humor is the best therapy (1/15th the cost of a therapy session, twice as long, and 10 times more effective!)! – George Higham
$9.00
© 1999 George Higham