Hugh Grant, with his boyish grin and his rumpled good looks, is the master of the I-can't-believe-this-is-happening-to-me situation. He wears his charming naiveté on his sleeve and makes what he does look so easy that it doesn't appear to be acting. After all, he always seems to be playing himself.

In "Nottinghill", he was astonished to find that a movie star had come into his bookstore and his life. In "Mickey Blue Eyes", he's shocked to find that he has accidentally joined the Mafia. And this isn't even the worst part. He incurs the wrath of a rival family, who wants revenge.

It all starts innocently enough. Art auction house manager Michael Felgate (Grant) tries the most charming of devices to propose to his girlfriend, Gina (Tripplehorn). At a Chinese restaurant, he attempts to arrange for the owner to stuff his marriage proposal into Gina's fortune cookie. The results prove surprisingly disastrous, as do most of poor Michael's actions in the story. The upshot is that Gina refuses to marry him because she's worried that Frank and his Mob buddies will somehow arrange for Michael to be drawn into their world. And as things turn out, her fears are fully justified. Father runs a restaurant in Little Italy that's a popular place for mobsters. Vito "The Butcher" holds court there nightly.

When Vito learns that Michael can't get proper deliveries of art for his auctions, he straightens out the problem. In return, he "asks" Michael to auction a horrendous piece of art painted by Johnny, his crazy son. Soon, Michael is inadvertently laundering money through his auction house and ending up as an accessory to murder. Although trying hard to avoid any degree of criminality, Michael, nevertheless, manages to earn himself the moniker of Mickey Blue Eyes.

With his grace and style, Grant dominates the film, but the rest of the cast nicely complement him. Tripplehorn makes a delightful Gina. Caan is delightfully charming as the father with a disreputable profession.