Married to the Mob (1988 Jonathan Demme)

Written by Barry Strugatz and Mark Burns, energetic film charts progress of hideously jumpered Mafia wife into a simpler, poorer and happier person at the end of three guns.

Michelle Pfeiffer is she, widowed from an impossibly young looking Alec Baldwin and being pursued by Dean Stockwell and his jealous wife Mercedes Ruehl.

It's a very well made film. Demme can do thrillers, though some of the action scenes look somewhat artificial, like he's deliberately sending up the conventions. What he does do singularly well is bring you into the story with those shots which are almost straight into camera (which he played with even more in Philadelphia) as well as knowing when to track in, when to give a really big close up (such as when Stockwell is threatening) or when to hold the camera a little longer just to get some detail (woman walking out of hair salon after Michelle has walked in).

Usual team of Tak Fujimoto and Craig McKay, David Byrne scoring, production design by Kristi Zea.

Apart from making (music) documentaries Demme seems intent on alienating audiences by remaking such classics as Charade and The Manchurian Candidate, though certain others look interesting...

As to Matthew Modine I wasn't quite sure what he was doing, though he's certainly bouncy, and reminded me of Jean-Pierre Léaud at one point! Loved though the way he and assistant Oliver Platt keep popping up all over the place in disguise.