Cookie (1989)

Directed by Susan Seidelman. Starring Peter Falk, Emily Lloyd, Dianne Wiest, Michael V. Gazzo, Lionel Stander, Adrian Pasdar, Brenda Vaccaro, Jerry Lewis, Bob Gunton. [R]

Impudent teen “Cookie” (Lloyd) meets her estranged father (Falk), a mid-level gangster newly released from prison, and even though she wants nothing to do with him and he dislikes her bad attitude, he reluctantly takes her under his wing as he struggles to stay ahead of his scheming associates and federal surveillance. A mob comedy without a hook to separate it from the pack, as most of the characters feel like ones who ended up on the cutting room floor following Married to the Mob’s final edit, and the plot is so busy and labored, we don’t get to savor the tacky underworld details and character relationships. Falk does what’s expected, so there are mild pleasures to be found in that kind of familiarity, while Lloyd is like Joan Cusack crossed with Madonna (and not always in a good way); Dianne Wiest steals the show as Cookie’s drama-queen mom (Falk’s mistress), a cartoon character with the occasional suggestion of personal depth. Might have been saved had Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen’s screenplay possessed even a little originality and edge, but instead it’s just a predictable riff on genre clichés.

49/100