Review of Prizzi's Honor (1985) by Steve M — 02 Mar 2008

A mobster (Nicholson) meets the love of his life (Turner), only to discover that she's an assassin who has stolen tens of thousands of dollars from the Mafia. What will he do when forced to chose between love and staying true to the code of honor of the crime family?

"Prizzi's Honor" is a film that has a reputation that exceeds reality. While it has some definate moments, it is unevenly paced and every character is treated so shallowly that when the film ends the only one whose motivation is fully understood is that of the love-struck Charley Partanna.

On the acting front, everyone does a fine job, but the shallowness of the characters gives the actors very little to work with. It also doesn't help their efforts that the film, in addition to being badly paced, seems unable to settle on a steady tone. It seems to vascilate between a spoof of a mobster epic like "The Godfather" and a dark comedy, or at least the script fails to properly blend the more subtle comedy aspects with the overt ones. This unsteadiness, together with the poor pacing of the film and the fact that the characters are cliches who more rightly belong in a more heavy-handed comedy that in one hopes to engage the audience's mind like this one, all add up to a film that's okay but nothing special.

Prizzi's Honor.

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, John Richardson, and Anjelica Huston.

Director: John Huston.