The trailer for the forthcoming romantic comedy Mickey Blue Eyes (or "Hugh Grant Gets Mobbed Up") has two cards to play. One is mafia lore, the other is... well, Hugh Grant. We first see him flogging an oil painting of a nude at the New York office of the British auction house where he works. With brittle decorum, he tells the prospective buyers that the title translates as Woman with Fat Bottom. Next thing, cute Jeanne Tripplehorne is chasing him down the street: "Funny run?" Grant frowns disarmingly at her. "But that's my run..."

Cue the gangsters. Tripplehorne plays a Grazziozi, whose father also happens to be Godfather James Caan. Cut to a vital scene: Caan introduces his prospective son-in-law to a few family members - Carmine, Vito and Vinnie. If the sight of archetypal Grant attempting to ingratiate himself with equally archetypal hoods doesn't do it for you, then you may as well take a load off your eyelids for the next minute of so. As I said, the trailer has a pair of trumps to play and a plot teaser isn't among them.

We see Grant auctioning off a terrible old master pastiche painted by one of the Grazziozi's, prompting the appearance of the FBI. All you need to know is that Grant is in over his head and has to pass himself off as a family member. As the pair speed through New York's mean streets, Caan coaches him frantically in gangster-speak: "`Fageddabuddit'". "`Forget about it,'" Grant responds desperately. Whether it appeals to you or not, goodfella Grant as a conceit is tailor-made for a two-minute hit.

Mickey Blue Eyes is released 20 August