Frank Falenczyk (Ben Kingsley) loves his job. He just happens to be the hit man for his Polish mob family in Buffalo, New York. But Frank's got a drinking problem and when he messes up a critical assignment that puts the family business in peril, his uncle (Philip Baker Hall) sends him to San Francisco to clean up his act.

Frank is not a touchy-feely kind of guy. But he starts going to AA meetings, gets a sponsor (Luke Wilson) and a job at a mortuary where he falls for the tart-tongued Laurel (Téa Leoni), a woman who is dangerously devoid of boundaries.

Meanwhile, things aren't gong well in Buffalo where an upstart Irish gang in threatening the family business. When violence erupts, Frank is forced to return home and with an unlikely assist from Laurel, faces old rivals on new terms.

  Canadian Connection: Partly filmed in Winnipeg. Some cast members are Canadian.