With a story premise like this, it's really hard to do anything wrong. A mafia-boss goes to a psychiatrist. It's surprising that nobody had this idea before. I mean, it's really something new. But to be sure, they casted Robert de Niro and Billy Crystal.<br /><br />Which ways the story is in fact not really interesting. It just doesn't matter. I mean, we don't really want to know why Paul Vitti (De Niro) has so much problems and when we finally got to know it, we don't feel better.<br /><br />But these two characters themself are interesting enough to watch them one and a half hours. Crystal as a psychiatrist is fantastic. It's strange he never played one before. He reminded me a bit on Richard Dreyfuss in ‘What About Bob?', another great psychiatrist-movie. But at least he doesn't get mad. Crystal is always a fine actor and he rarely makes a bad film. It's just too much fun to watch him. He looks always scared and neurotic and this is funny enough.<br /><br />But they couldn't had anyone better casted than De Niro. I mean, we saw him so many times as a gangster. I read a review about ‘True Confessions' where he plays a priest, where Roger Ebert couldn't think of him in such a role. Of course today we know how much this actor can do and how much he can be called one of the greatest actors of all times. But the gangster is a role we just know him. Here he plays another gangster - and he makes fun of it. That's really great. Consider the scene where they want to torture a little guy to make them tell who betrayed them. De Niro shouts at him, takes a barr and... does nothing. He just can't. We saw him hitting guys so often, this is just unbelievable. De Niro is great and he proofed again that he can play nearly anything.<br /><br />The best scenes are the ones where Crystal and De Niro talk. The way De Niro convinces Crystal of the things he wants to hear is great. The best one is the classical first line. `Do you know me?' `Yes, I Do.' `No, you don't.' `No, I don't'<br /><br />To the rest there isn't much to say. Palminteri plays just a stereotype and I hope Kudrow will ever get a role where she plays someone intelligent. Joe Viterelli is quite enjoyable and the actor who plays Crystals son is also funny. The story is, as I said, not that much interesting. I mean, who really cares about all the betrayals and all that stuff. But they could have finished the conflict Crystal had with his father instead of just starting with it and never going anywhere.<br /><br />It's a really entertaining film with lots of good jokes. Not really a masterpiece, but a good comedy. This is an effort ourdays.<br /><br />8/10 \ 3/4 \ 2 (1+ - 6-)