I can just imagine the pitch meeting...

INTERVIEW.
Big Hollywood Studio.
A handful of suits sit gathered around a glossy conference table staring down a bedragged man we'll call WRITER. Plastic plants shine. The sound of John Tesh twinkles in the air.

SUIT #1: Well, the whole mob thing's been done; don't you think?

WRITER: No, but you see—the mobsters are, like, funny. Don't get me wrong, they're still mean and intimidating and ready to cap people for no...

SUIT #2: Good, good. That was gonna be my next question.

WRITER: Yeah, but they're funny. I was thinking, like, Bobby De Niro as the mob boss with depression. And, I don't know, one of those Saturday Night Live guys for the shrink.

SUIT #1: It's brilliant. Just brilliant. Mobsters are funny too. I mean, why wouldn't they be?

WRITER: Exactly my premise. Why wouldn't they be?

SUIT #2: The Godfather meets What About Bob. Is Billy Crystal available [into intercom], Shirley, get Billy Crystal's people on the phone at once.

You get the idea. Those suits—and they are out there, somewhere—most certainly had this conversation. They love reinventing a bankable formula. De Niro plus laughs. That's fucking money. Or so goes the executive logic.

My feelings about Analyze This depend greatly on who you view as the star of the film. As Billy Crystal flicks go, it's pretty damn good. In the De Niro oeuvre, well, it's just okay.

Lisa Kudrow

The story goes something like this: Newly annointed mob boss Paul Vitti (De Niro) was raised to rule New York. He's tough, no nonsense and surrounded by loyal, able (or mostly able) henchman... except for one thing: He's having a breakdown. He can't sleep, can't focus, can't, er, function with his mistress. In other words, he's everything but the menacing mobster he needs to be. The answer, you ask? Therapy, of course. Enter Ben Sobol (Crystal), a nebbishy suburban New York therapist who just happened to rear end Vitti's head cronies the night before he decides it's time for help. Begrudgingly, the divorced, neurotic shrink begins to treat his unusual patient and the fish out of water scenario results in... buckets o' laughs.

While HBO's deservedly lauded Jersey mob series, The Sopranos certainly stole some thunder from the driving premise of Analyze This, the movie still gets productive use of the mobster in therapy idea. Trouble is, the movie rarely elevates itself above cliché and while several counseling scenes are good for a chuckle, the Vitti character, in particular, is essentially a caricature of every hard-headed mob boss ever portrayed on celluloid (or video, for that matter). As the reluctant therapist, Billy Crystal is sufficient as always, not outstanding but far from awful (his "safe" comedy is perfect for middle America; certainly the reason he's loved by Oscar organizers). Lisa Kudrow, as Sobol's fiancee Laura MacNamara, basically phones in a role as an upwardly mobile Phoebe—a little daffy, a lot annoyed that her betrothed keeps ditching her to counsel a mob heavy. Kudrow fans take note: it's not her fault, this character has the depth of a city park kiddie pool. The only other notable in the cast is Chazz Palminteri as Vitti's rival mafia don Primo Sindone (I know what you're thinking: it's quite a stretch for Chazz). On the supporting side, I have to say Joe Viterelli as the loveable numbskull bodyguard "Jelly" was good, stupid fun—not exactly original, but a good many of the movie's finest comic moments.