Analyze This . Tucson Weekly . 03-29-99

Analyze This

DIRECTED BY: Harold Ramis

REVIEWED: 03-29-99

It's the impossibly tough-willed dramatic actor versus the fast-talking, lightweight comedian in this tale of a New York mobster who hires an unwilling therapist. In the former role, Robert DeNiro both makes fun of and pays homage to some of his most famous roles, including those in The Godfather, Part II and Goodfellas. What's great about DeNiro is that he is never merely winking at the audience; he's still seriously acting, even while being funny. This keeps the tension taut, creating an environment in which Billy Crystal's sometimes-annoying brand of squirmy humor can thrive. They're a terrific comic mismatch, and director-writer Harold Ramis (a favorite from the days of SCTV) smartly allows them to play off each other as frequently as possible. When Analyze This does lag, it's because Ramis actually seems to be taking the therapeutic scenes seriously--a predisposition he no doubt picked up from his direction of the strangely good Stuart Saves His Family. The film also benefits from the supporting efforts of Joe Viterelli, a fat, bad-skinned henchman who's tough enough to be menacing but not too tough to say the word "poop."

--Woodruff

Full Length Reviews
Analyze This

Capsule Reviews
Analyze This

Other Films by Harold Ramis
Multiplicity
Stuart Saves His Family

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