Themes: Witness Protection, Fish Out of Water, Small-Town Life
Main Cast: Jesse Bradford, Steve Martin, Rick Moranis, Joan Cusack, Melanie Mayron, Carol Kane
Release Year: 1990
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Herbert Ross directed this Nora Ephron-scripted buddy comedy starring Steve Martin, Rick Moranis, and Joan Cusack. Steve Martin plays Vinnie Antonelli, a street smart mobster who agrees to turn state's evidence and is forced to move to Fryburg, California as part of the witness relocation program. Rick Moranis plays the nebbish FBI agent Barney Coopersmith, who is assigned to help Vinnie adjust to small town life. Instead, Vinnie helps Barney come out of his shell, much to the consternation of divorced mother and relentless district attorney Hannah Stubbs (Joan Cusack). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
While it wasn't exactly robbed of Best Picture, My Blue Heaven is a delightful and underrated film. The script by Nora Ephron is simple and entertaining and offers plenty of opportunities for Steve Martin to have fun with his role. It's refreshing to see Martin taking on a goofy character like mobster-with-a-heart-of-gold Vinnie Anotelli amid the countless long-suffering patriarchal roles he filled from the mid-'80s through the '90s, and he's both believable and funny in the part. Also, in perhaps the last example that he's a talented performer, Rick Moranis is a more than capable foil for the scheming and conniving Vinnie. The interaction between the two leads takes up most of the movie and it's that comedic chemistry that makes it so successful. The fact that the movie tanked at the box office could very well be the reason for Moranis' virtual disappearance from anything not about shrinking people and Martin's long string of uninteresting lead roles that followed. Either way, My Blue Heaven didn't deserve the shaft and is more than worthy of another look. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
Richard G. Berger - Art Director, Lynne Taylor-Corbett - Choreography, Joseph M. Caracciolo, Jr. - Co-producer, Herbert Ross - Co-producer, Anthea Sylbert - Co-producer, Joseph G. Aulisi - Costume Designer, Herbert Ross - Director, Stephen A. Rotter - Editor, Goldie Hawn - Executive Producer, Ira Newborn - Composer (Music Score), Charles Rosen - Production Designer, John Bailey - Cinematographer, Nora Ephron - Producer, Andrew Stone - Producer, Jim Bayliss - Set Designer, Robert Maddy - Set Designer, Nick Navarro - Set Designer, Donald J. Remacle - Set Designer, Al Overton - Sound/Sound Designer, Nora Ephron - Screenwriter
It has been noted for its relationship to the movie Goodfellas. Both movies are based upon the life of Henry Hill, although the character is renamed to "Vincent 'Vinnie' Antonelli" in My Blue Heaven
In some ways My Blue Heaven is a preemptive sequel to Goodfellas, as Goodfellas ends with Hill's dissatisfaction with life in the Witness Protection Program, while My Blue Heaven starts out Hill's life after the move. Goodfellas stays much closer to the facts of Hill's life, but a lot of Hill's experiences are reflected in the latter film (in an addition, My Blue Heaven flashes title cards on the screen listing the chapter headings in Hill's books). Another link is Hill's complaint about being served "egg noodles and ketchup" appears in both movies.
While Goodfellas was based upon the book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, the screenplay for My Blue Heaven was written by Pileggi's wife, Nora Ephron, and much of the research for both works was done in the same sessions with Hill.
The movie was filmed primarily in the California city of San Luis Obispo and the surrounding area, though the nominal setting is a fictional suburb of San Diego, California. Some scenes were actually shot in San Diego.
Originally, Steve Martin was cast to play Barney Coopersmith, with Arnold Schwarzenegger playing the role of Vinnie Antonelli. However, Schwarzenegger was soon thereafter offered the role of Det. John Kimble in Kindergarten Cop, and left the production. Failing to find another suitable "Vinnie" for Martin's Coopersmith, Martin offered to take on the role of Vinnie himself. Producers agreed, and then cast Rick Moranis as Coopersmith, who had originally been considered for the role, but was unavailable until then.[1]
