Prizzi's Honor

Charley Partanna is the enforcer for New York's biggest mafia family. He falls in love with a woman he sees at a wedding. Irene says she is a tax consultant; in fact she is a freelance contract killer and part of the theft of the family's money. They marry. Then the family orders Charley to kill his wife. The subject is not crime but two professionals running a marriage like a business arrangement. The conversations between Charley and Irene move between affection and negotiation; the film builds this as black comedy rather than tragedy, and what is funny is precisely how serious they are. The form is slow and ceremonial. The wedding runs long, the family meetings are shown in something close to religious order, and the violence arrives abruptly. The acting is deliberately broad; Jack Nicholson has changed his manner of speech entirely. The most cited element is a family connection. John Huston directs and Anjelica Huston, playing the family's daughter, is his own; she won the supporting actress Oscar for it. The film received eight nominations and Huston was nominated for directing. Kathleen Turner plays Irene, with Robert Loggia and William Hickey as the family. The source is Richard Condon's novel and he contributed to the screenplay. Who it is for: viewers who like black comedy and the classical mafia story turned inside out. Who it is not for: anyone expecting pace; the film is deliberately slow and its humour is cold.