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Larry Gigli (Ben Affleck) is a low-level Los Angeles mob enforcer. His volatile boss, Louis (Lenny Venito), hires Gigli to kidnap Brian (newcomer Justin Bartha), the mentally handicapped younger brother of a federal prosecutor who’s about to bring Louis’ boss to trial in New York. Gigli gets the kid home without a hitch. Then a beautiful woman (Jennifer Lopez) shows up at his door. She says her name is Ricki, and Gigli soon learns that the nervous Louis has hired her to keep an eye on him. “In every relationship,” Gigli soon finds himself expounding to his unwanted partner, “there’s a bull and a cow.” His efforts to maintain control of the situation are further hampered by the brief appearance of the insane Detective Stanley Jacobellis (Christopher Walken) and a forced visit to his overbearing mother’s (Lainie Kazan) house. To make matters worse, when Gigli expresses his attraction to Ricki, he learns that she’s a lesbian. She, meanwhile, proves herself considerably more capable than the lunkheaded Gigli, winning their war of words and even scaring off a rowdy group of high school kids. As Gigli and Ricki continue to look after the young, innocent Brian, they find themselves increasingly attracted to one another. But their potential budding romance is put on hold when Starkman (Al Pacino) arrives from New York, angry about how his affairs are being handled. Director Martin Brest, in his first film since 1998’s Meet Joe Black, returns to the crime comedy genre that made his reputation. Brest also wrote the script for Gigli, his first since 1979’s Going in Style. Stars Affleck and Lopez began a well-publicized romantic relationship on the set of the film.
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