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Married to the Mob (1988) More at IMDbPro »

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39 comments in total

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15 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Mob-Comedy Classic Always Entertains, 27 January 2007
Author: ccthemovieman-1 from Lockport, NY, United States

This is a consistently funny story with some serious action scenes thrown in here and there. That combination of mob movie and comedy makes this a fun film to watch.l The characters in this movie are just that: characters. Everyone is a little off, actually a little too wacky for any believability. It's just a outrageous story played for laughs with few things making sense or being realistic.

Michelle Pfeiffer and Matthew Modine are the stars but Mercedes Ruehl steals the show, in my opinion, as the jealous wife. Dean Stockwell is great as the smooth mob man. Even with all the makeup to make her look cheap, Pfeiffer ("Angela de Marco") still can't hide that fabulous face. The costumes in here are great, too.

This is not family fare with a deserved R-rating for language, violence and some nudity but it's not really a rough movie. It has its charms, that's for sure. Modine plays the nice guy "Mike Downey."

Note: stay with the ending credits, because there is a lot of footage of scenes that never made it to the movie but were very interesting.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Revisiting the Mob, 27 August 2009

Author: M. J Arocena from New Zealand

Time does extraordinary things. It's the ultimate judge. Time has granted "Married To The Mob" an extra doses of freshness. There aren't any dead moments or cheap shots. It's more of a delight now than it ever was. Michelle Pfeiffer creates a mafia widow that it's as far away from a caricature as anything she's ever done. A true original creation touching or hinting at the stereotype just to guide us through but her Angela is quite unique. The legendary Dean Stockwell presents us with a a mafia boss that it's just as menacingly real as he is hilarious. And Matthew Modine? Why did I think back then that he didn't have any chemistry with Pfeiffer? I was wrong. They are wonderful together. They reminded me, this time, to the Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray of "Remember The Night" I'm writing this comment now to entice you to visit or revisit this Jonathan Demme gem.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
This movie is delightful: It's a hoot, 19 June 2006

Author: fldelk-1 from United States

This is a romantic comedy, so it's really a fairy tale, but an unconventional one. Cinderella, rather than living in the ashes, lives in an overdecorated castle in the suburbs with a good looking husband who's no prince. She does find her prince, but he's not that handsome. Instead of a castle, at least initially, she gets a tiny walk-up in Manhattan.

Pfeifer, Stockwell and Ruehl lead a cast of fully realized, if a little over-the-top, characters.

Demme reaches the highest level of movie-making in my mind. He creates a world I want to move into - a Manhattan neighborhood and street life teeming with life and community.

I wish IMDb linked to reviewers' other comments. I'd like to know what other movies the people who panned this one hate. I am always looking for a lot of laughs and for nice places in which to "live" at least for an hour or so.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
It has great moments, a clear plot, and Jonathan Demme, yes!, 2 August 2004
Author: nini_ten from NY

This has to be one of Michelle Pfeiffer's best performances, she totally nailed the part! Dean Stockwell couldn't be more perfect for the role. There was a moment when the FBI arrived at the Honeymoon suite, and he turned and snapped his fingers, his response was so immediate, so realized that it became supreme entertainment. One of the other great moments are when the FBI brothers go "B-i-n-g-o" wth each other, and it's because Jonathan Demme adds these touches is what makes him so great. Mercedes Ruel is dynamite too. Pfeiffer's boyfriend acted a little too awkward but was still very right for the part. The more stale and formulated plot is what abled this movie's story to be so clear and over the top. When deleted scenes were cut into credit sequences in the end it felt beautiful and brilliantly cheerful. Great movie, great performances, great director.

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Still on my list of all-time favorites, after all these years!, 15 September 2004

Author: siberryfan from Beautiful Buffalo, NY

This is a fun movie with subtle intention. Its off-beat comedy is hilarious to me, unfunny to my friends. The soundtrack is perfect.

I own this on VHS and I have watched it many, many times, because it's simply a fun and funny love story with great performances by all the principals (though using Joan Cusack solely as a perch for big hair was a waste of her talent. I know, I know, she was still young...).

On a sad note, I decided to check out the DVD last night (instead of watching my VHS tape), and was SHOCKED to find many crucial scenes cut. And on the copy I watched, there was no special feature of deleted scenes: it was as if the deleted scenes never existed!! I am so glad I bought the used VHS at a flea market.

It is clear there was a great deal of choreography in this, which is another reason I love it so much. It takes great skill, talent, and genius to move around the scenes like Mercedes Ruehl, Dean Stockwell, and Matthew Modine do from scene to scene (Note the scene when the grocery carts converge, the rolling on the floor during the shoot-out in Miami, the Chicken Lickin' debacle, the foot massage, the salon hair-washing.) There is a very "theatrical" feel to this film, which may be the turn-off for so many whose poor reviews follow: I know some viewers who don't quite understand this style mistake the exaggerations and over-the-top performances for poor acting and worse direction. Not so. Jonathan Demme does a great job bringing to life the entire company and their respective roles.

The opening credits and first scene rank among my all-time favorites, as well (another favorite opening credits/first scene: Fly Away Home).

Too bad Matthew Modine so ardently skipped out of the public eye; I really like him, and found his casting PERFECT in the role of Mike Smith. Actually, this film is well-cast from soup to nuts: everyone is believable and true to his role. As for the question of expecting audience to accept Pfeiffer and Stockwell as Italians - why not? I thought they pulled it off perfectly well.

Charming, fun, exciting... what is there not to like? If you want a little fun, watch this quirky, colorful adventure-mob-love story. If you are looking to learn more about organized crime and families, tune to HBO's The Sopranos.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Great fun!, 23 July 2006

Author: Snoopymichele from CT

Michelle Pfeiffer and Matthew Modine are a joy to watch in this screwball comedy. Alec Baldwin, who was an up and coming star when the film was made, is a hoot. Dean Stockwell, in a sendup of John Gotti, is hysterical. But Mercedes Ruehl, as the paranoid and over the top Connie steals the movie.

Jonathan Demme, previously known for wacky comedies like "Something Wild" and "Melvin and Howard"-proves once again that he is a genius. I was not surprised at all when he went on to win the Oscar for directing "Silence of The Lambs." The performances he evokes from his actors in "Married" are inspired, and the audience is taken along for a wild and wooly ride.

One of the cutest, most endearing films of the 80's, it stands head and shoulders above many of the satires of its era.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Good fun., 25 June 2001

Author: k h from United States

It ain't Shakespeare, that's true, but it is a light and breezy romp. Pfieffer and Modine and Baldwin and Dean Stockwell are all having a great time with this 'dissatisfied mob wife' tale, and you will too. Interesting to watch this in the light of the "sopranos"- they are like loopy relatives somehow. Demme went on to greater, darker films (silence of the lambs, philadelphia) but I still enjoy his lighter period. So will you.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
The Italian Perspective, 29 October 2005

Author: John Wayne Peel (jwpeel@tiac.net) from Lynn, Massachusetts

First, don't be fooled by my family name. My mother was full blooded Italian, so I really know Italian families, and I LOVE mobster movies, even the funny ones like this.

For those people who have bad rapped this film (you know who you are) you should have your movie privileges taken from you because you don't know what good is. This is a damn funny and well-styled film. The fact that almost nobody is Italian in it is part of the joke, so far as I can see. And what red-blooded straight male could complain about spending an hour and something with the likes of Michelle Pfieffer? Puh-lease! When I saw this film it won me over with the opening song by Rosemary Clooney who was as Irish as one can get, but her pronunciation of the Italian words in "Mambo Italiano" is flawless and sets the tone of what is to follow perfectly. (Hell, I even bought the record the next day because of it.) Just the look of every garish thing in the apartment that I have personally seen in my relatives houses, though not in the same place (which I found hysterical) sold it for me.

This movie is like Goodfellas on laughing gas. I just wonder why there are no Burger Worlds and what happened to the food these guys were supposed to get? My guess is the crew ate it. "The Fries are crispy. The shakes are creamy." My mouth is watering almost as much as it is thinking of the gorgeous Ms. Pfieffer. (And I never trusted clowns anyway.) And the three best things about this film are Mercedes Ruehl's achingly funny mob wife spurned, Dean Stockwell as her philandering husband Tony "The Tiger" and last, but DEFINITELY not least, the great mugging by Oliver Platt who should get more comic roles. And note to myself: find out where that black chick went. Ouch! Why does she work so infrequently? This picture is right alongside the great mob movies as it should be.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Wild, uneven but fairly amusing., 17 October 2002
Author: Devyalento Latchford Deschanel from London, England

Angela De Marco is leading a life she cannot stand. Married to mobster Frank 'The Cucumber' De Marco and hounded by fellow Mafia wives, Angela longs for a life without all the worries that come with being part of the Mafia. Frank is desperate to impress Tony 'The Tiger' Russo, killing off people wherever he can, but Angela's resistance to socialise with the Family causes him distress. Yet Frank slips up when he has an affair with waitress Karen Lutnick, who also happens fooling around with Tony. Frank is quickly done away with, and Angela decides now is the perfect opportunity to take her and her young son away from the chaos, and flees her affluent surroundings for a dingy apartment in the hope of starting a new, honest life. It isn't going to be as easy as she had hoped, since she is being spied upon by FBI agent Mike Downey, who poses as her neighbour to get closer to her. He is under the assumption that Angela is Tony's mistress, and had some part in the killings of Frank and Karen. Tony is also quite taken with Angela, and pursues her behind his wife Connie's back to win her over. Downey finds himself at a crossroads when he falls for Angela, and the FBI give Angela an ultimatum; she can either help them get Tony or face life behind bars. Reluctantly, she falls back into the world of the Mob to try and solve the matter at hand. But with Tony's unwanted amorous advances becoming more frequent, and Connie hot on their trail, things become very difficult, very quickly.

It's fluffy, cheesy and completely ridiculous, but Married To The Mob is also a fairly amusing affair. It's certainly not a sparkling comedy, and it's awfully dated, but that adds to its charm. Looking at the impressive cast list, I'm surprised that so many talented performers committed themselves to this. In all fairness, it isn't as hilarious as it would like itself to be. There are moments where it seems so uneven, and even the actors themselves look a little lost amongst it all. But, if you can be bothered to follow the storyline, it's not bad at all. Michelle Pfeiffer makes an excellent leading lady here as Angela, complete with big hair and ropey accent, but she also gives the character depth and warmth. Matthew Modine may as well be invisible, and making Mike so irritating doesn't help matters. Dean Stockwell is great as the sleazy Tony, and Mercedes Ruehl deserves some kind of award for her portrayal of Tony's maniac wife Connie, easily the best character in the film. It's also interesting to see some brilliant supporting actors in surprisingly minor parts. Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack, Oliver Platt, Nancy Travis, all pop up here and there and make some sort of impact. Jonathan Demme's direction is passable considering the jumpy plot, but it all seems so below standard at times. Cheap and cheery is probably the best way of describing it. Still, with all its faults intact, Married To The Mob still makes for an entertaining feature. As long as you don't have great expectations, you'll enjoy it. Pfeiffer's accent alone is enough to give it a try.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Following In Ava's And Marilyn's Footsteps..., 29 November 2007

Author: ferbs54 from United States

What happened to Ava Gardner in the 1940s and Marilyn Monroe in the '50s also seemed to take place for modern-day actress Michelle Pfeiffer in the '80s: Her remarkable good looks got in the way of her being taken seriously as an accomplished, superbly talented actress. Anyone looking for validation of Pfeiffer's dramatic abilities need look no further than her work in 1991's "Frankie and Johnny" or '92's "Love Field" (a personal favorite of mine); those looking to see what a splendid comedic actress she can be, when given the right part, should check out 1988's "Married to the Mob." In this one, she plays Angela Demarco, the widow of a recently "iced" Mob hit-man, who moves from her garishly tacky Long Island home to start a new life for herself and her son, while being pursued by Mob boss Dean Stockwell and FBI man Matthew Modine. While this movie has lots going for it (a very amusing script; offbeat characters; sudden sharp turns to unexpected violence, as in director Jonathan Demme's previous effort "Something Wild"; and hilarious yet menacing performances by Stockwell and Mercedes Ruehl, as his jealous wife from hell), Michelle steals the show easily. Notice how perfectly she nails Angela's undereducated, Long Island Italian accent, and the many fine mannerisms that she brings to the role to really flesh out this spunky and surprisingly bright character. Once upon a time, long ago, Oscars were handed out to actresses for comedic roles such as this one. Had this film been made 60 years ago, Michelle mighta been a contenduh...

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