Synopsis

A professional hit man and hit woman fall in love, only to discover that they have each been hired to kill the other.

But for a few bizarre twists, it might have been a simple boy-meets-girl story: Italian from Brooklyn falls in love with gorgeous L.A. blonde. Both are free spirits; both have big bank accounts. In expensive hotels and fancy restaurants over exquisite food they express their feelings for each other. Their romance might have had a happy ending, except....

He is Charley Partanna (Jack Nicholson), sotto capo for the Prizzi’s, one of the richest crime syndicate families in the country. She is Irene Walker (Kathleen Turner); a freelance killer secretly hired by the Prizzi’s to eliminate someone who betrayed them. So complicated are Family politics, he doesn't know about her until after he has lost his heart. She knows who he is - but she doesn't know about Maerose Prizzi (Anjelica Huston), beautiful granddaughter of the don, who's still in love with Charley.

As the two new lovers come to terms with their new relationship, and with the blessing of Charley’s father Angelo 'Pop' Partanna (John Randolph), they begin to work together. However little do they know that Maerose is not a woman to be slighted and in her rage and love for Charley, she orchestrates the family's hit on their favourite hitman, at the hands of his new wife no less. Meanwhile Charley finds himself in a similar bind when Irene is implicated in the theft of mob money and Charley is put on the job.

A romantic black comedy, Prizzi's Honor shows the dark side of the American criminal underworld, whilst also showing the normality of the lives of those involved as well as the typical craziness found in any family.