Cookie Reviews

Throughout COOKIE, one has the uncomfortable feeling that director Susan Seidelman couldn't decide which direction to take the story concerning the budding relationship between Brooklyn-born mobster Dino Capisco (Peter Falk), just released from a 13-year stint in prison, and his hot-tempered, illegitimate daughter Cookie (Emily Lloyd), whose punkish lifestyle clashes disconcertingly with Dino's way of looking at things. Dino also has problems with Lenore (Dianne Wiest), who is his mistress and Cookie's fading beauty queen mother, and his shrewish wife (Brenda Vaccaro). As if all that weren't enough, he's got to worry about the deadly intentions of his ex-partner in crime (Michael V. Gazzo). It's quite clear that the screenplay by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen contains all the elements of a wryly humorous Runyonesque story, with (potentially) amusing hoods and other assorted oddball characters. In COOKIE, however, Seidelman attempts to fuse what would have been better left a comical gangster farce with her own ultrahip, DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN filmmaking style, and the end result just doesn't work. The story often lacks focus, and the fun promised by the film's opening never materializes, leaving COOKIE dull and sluggish.