Plot

Two professional assassins fall in love.

Charley Partanna is a hit-man who works for the Prizzis, one of the richest crime syndicate families in the country. Unbeknownst to Charley,the Prizzis just hired Irene Walker, a free-lance killer, to eliminate someone who double-crossed them. When Irene and Charley fall in love their jobs become complicated. Their jobs become impossible when each is given a contract that neither can go through with.—Tiff Banks

In New York, the hit-man Charley Partanna is like a son for his godfather Don Corrado Prizzi, who is a powerful mobster. In a wedding of a member of their family, Charley meets Irene Walker and he falls in love with her. Irene introduces herself as a tax consultant, but indeed she is a killer hired by the Prizzis for a "contract" in New York. They get married, and later Charley realizes that she betrayed the Prizzis and had stolen their money in a casino. Charley has to face and decide between his code of honor with the Prizzi's family and his love for Irene.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

For Charley Partanna (Jack Nicholson), life in the Prizzi family is good as long as he honors the wishes of the Godfather (William Hickey). Partanna is respected for ruthlessly carrying out murder contracts, but his wise-talking Brooklyn existence is turned on its head when he falls for a beautiful hit woman (Kathleen Turner) from the West Coast. He follows her back to California, balancing work commitments and his love interest until a new contract makes things difficult.—FilmsNow

Somewhat simpleminded Charley Partanna has indeed taken the life path laid out for him to become an enforcer for the Brooklyn-based Prizzi mob family led by patriarch Don Corrado Prizzi, that job which includes carrying out hits. The police largely turn a blind eye to the Prizzis' dealings of a non-violent nature. The one path set out for Charley that he didn't eventually take is marriage to the Don's interior decorator granddaughter Maerose Prizzi, his ex-fiancée who he's known since childhood. Issues related to their split four years ago has led to Maerose being persona non grata by her family, most specifically her father Dominic Prizzi. Maerose showing up at her sister's wedding is the first time Charley has seen her since their break-up and is in part an effort, a failed one, for her to reestablish her place in the family. At the wedding, Charley also spies a beautiful blonde he's never seen who he eventually meets: Los Angeles-based tax consultant Irene Walker. It's love at first sight for Charley, that love which supersedes all else, including what she eventually admits to him: that she is really a contract assassin, she who was in town to carry out a hit. In that love, Charley also "believes" her story that she knew nothing about her estranged husband's theft of Prizzi money at a Las Vegas casino in she returning half of it. Overcoming the outward issues, Charley and Irene get married, she ultimately able to convince him that she is more of an asset as a fellow hit person in his life than just a housewife. However, there is still the question of the Prizzis, how they collectively will take to Irene permanently within their midst, and by association how she will affect Charley's place in the family.—Huggo