MARRIED TO THE MOB

CAPSULE REVIEW –– 1988 was a great year for Pfeiffer, allowing her to really strut her stuff in vastly different genres. Here she proves her comedy chops as a mafia wife who's had enough of the "good" life and wants nothing more than to carve out a normal existence. The sudden death of her philandering hitman husband (Baldwin) seems to give her the chance to start over in the real world, but that proves harder to do than she thought. The head of the family, Tony "The Tiger" Russo (Stockwell) is desperate to get in her pants, while the FBI, led by Agent Mike Downey (Modine), uses her to try to catch Tony. Angela is naively caught in the middle and quickly falling for Mike. After spending time with her, he realizes she knows nothing about Tony's business and that he's in love with her as well. All hell breaks loose when Angela discovers who Mike really is and Connie (Ruehl), Tony's insanely jealous wife, seeks revenge for Tony's flirtation with Angela. The plot moves from quirky and clever to completely outrageous by the end, but the ride to get there is amusing and romantic enough. Pfeiffer is not exactly believable as a New Jersey mafia princess, however, she's sweet, honest and quite funny, which makes up for it. Angela's a great character and she gives her all to the part, as do Stockwell and Ruehl the other cast standouts. A fun way to pass the time.