COOKIE (1989) stars British-born Emily Lloyd as the hard-edged daughter of a recently paroled Mafia boss (Peter Falk); her mother (Dianne Wiest) is the man's mistress. Cookie (Carmela) is too much like her old man ('Dapper Dino' Capisco) for comfort-- she has his toughness, courage under fire and violent tendencies. Dad chooses to ignore these however and berates the girl for her "early-Madonna" fashion sense and trampy behavior, which makes their initial reunion after his 13 year "stretch" a rocky one.
As with any crime family story, money is a factor here. Dino's partner (Carmine) sold their business venture while Dino was in jail, and refuses to give up half the money. The rest of the story involves double-crosses and redouble-crosses that pit Cookie and her father against the mob and an ambitious D.A.
Considering the subject matter, COOKIE is a pleasant movie scripted by Nora Ephron. A cast of familiar faces, like Michael V. Gazzo as the chiseling Carmine (he was Frankie Pantangelo in "Godfather II"), and Jerry Lewis as the mobster who bought out the business, keep things lively throughout. Watch for a pre-diet Ricki Lake as Cookie's girlfriend.
(Not available on DVD.)
Emily Lloyd portrayed Bruce Willis's daughter in IN COUNTRY(1989), which is the story of an ex-Vietnam vet who's disabled by PTSD.
Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.
(5.2) Cookie (1989) - Peter Falk/Dianne Wiest/Emily Lloyd/Michael V. Gazzo/Brenda Vaccaro/Lionel Stander/Jerry Lewis/Ricki Lake/Joy Behar