A movie sometimes, actually, most of the time, needs a nudge in the right casting direction. For Married to the Mob, we have Michelle Pfeiffer and Dean Stockwell in two big roles, and others for Matthew Modine and Mercedes Ruehl to sink their teeth into, too. Each actor takes over the role in his or her own way, and makes these characters into well-rounded people. The key for Jonathan Demme is this: people. They're not simply cartoon figures in a farce, but like in a good ol' screwball comedy from the days of Cary Grant, we got a premise and story that begs for actors who are so smart that they can get playing dumb, or just off-kilter or a little deranged. When we see Pfeiffer here, we believe that she's at a crossroads in her life, and she doesn't play it for laughs. Instead, she lets others around her go more over the top. In another story, she would be just as believable as an uncertain widow with a past she'd rather forget.
And yes, Dean Stockwell is here in another gob-smackingly good acting gig (he even got an unlikely supporting actor nod for it). There's something about the guy that is just a little creepy, not really his fault, per-say, except that it's something in his eyes, his mannerisms, the way he'll glance at a character he doesn't trust or has something really to say to. He did this perfectly in his one scene in Blue Velvet, and to a more restrained extent in Tucker The Man & His Dream. Here, however, he goes to town as a mob-boss caricature, but he also doesn't do ALL of the heavy lifting. He is still subtle compared to Ruehl's turn as Russo's wife, who has insane jealousy (and rightfully so, perhaps, if not so far as she goes), and is so over the top that she does her best to chew scenery every which way she can.
So then, with a good premise, and some fine supporting actors (Alec Baldwin has a few decent moments too), what's the problem? I think, perhaps, Demme wasn't always sure how to take the comedy where it needed to go. The script has the characters playing up behavior, which works well when, for example, Modine's "Mike Smith" is caught in a rock and a hard place in going out on a date with Angela. But other set-pieces sort of fall flat, and the ending is unsatisfying (especially irritating is Demme's decision to put in deleted clips from the film in the end credits, his way of doing 'outtakes'). And some of the dialog is over-cooked, making the actors strain to make it credible consistently.
But Married to the Mob is fun within a certain frame of mind. It plays up some clichés like it's going out of style (which is sort of did) and leaves out others, and you may enjoy seeing the actors enjoying themselves in the scenes. It's a lighthearted affair, with touches of appropriate mob violence, and David Byrne of the Talking Heads doing the music!
