When his mentor is assassinated, New York gangster Paul Vitti (Robert De Niro) falls apart emotionally and starts having anxiety attacks. He decides to privately see a "head doctor." His resourceful bodyguard (Joe Viterelli) introduces him to Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal), a family therapist and single parent of a teenage boy.
This hilarious comedy directed by Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day) delves into the multiple hang-ups of these two middle-aged men who are both obsessed with their fathers. Robert De Niro vividly conveys the mobster's uneasiness with his mood swings and his machismo fear of exposing any vulnerabilities. In one moment, Vitti is fending off the power plays of his New York rival (Chazz Palminteri) and in the next, he is dissolving into tears.
Billy Crystal gives his best performance in years as the hard-pressed shrink who tries to dispense wisdom to his new client while getting ready to wed Laura (Lisa Kudrow), a Miami-based newscaster. In the most humorous scene in the film, Sobel tries to stand in for Vitti at a gathering of Mafia kingpins. Analyze This manages to generate plenty of laughs around the fears and the foibles of these two men who still haven't gotten their acts together midway through their lives.