This was pretty much exactly like Mr. and Mrs. Smith but without the happy ending. Anjelica Huston won an Oscar for her role as Maerose Prizzi, the grand-daughter of a mafia don. Enforcer Charley (Jack Nicholson) and Maerose used to be an item, but Charley got cold feet and backed out, besmirching Maerose's honor. For this, she is exiled from the family. Then Charley sees a beautiful stranger (Kathleen Turner) at Maerose's sister's wedding and, after some digging, finds out that her name is Irene Walker. They start dating, until Charley's father (John Randolph) mentions that Irene is actually an out-of-town hitter called in for special jobs. Charley can get past that, though, until he finds out that Irene was involved in a scam to rip the Prizzis off for $720,000. Then he marries her. Maerose meanwhile, uses this information to get back into her father's (Lee Richardson) good graces before turning him against Charley. Things go very wrong after Irene shoots a woman during a kidnapping who turns out to be a police captain's wife. The resulting heat almost sparks a war between the Families and Don Corrado Prizzi (William Hickey) decides that Irene has to go. And Charley has to do the honors.
Now, I'm not one of those people that believes in fairy tales and picture-perfect endings. However, I do believe in justice. I cling fervently to this belief because I am, at heart, a terrible person and the only reason I don't commit unspeakable criminal acts is the fear of punishment. Therefore, when I see a character like Maerose Prizzi: a conniving, cold-blooded snake of a woman not only go unpunished, but **SPOILER ALERT** end up getting exactly what she always wanted, to the extent of breaking up a happy marriage by having one of the two murder the other one **END SPOILER** well, it just makes me sad that I can't get away with more things. That's really my only complaint about this movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment