Rated R. At the AMC Boston Common and suburban theaters.
Director Catherine Hardwicke is not known for making comedies, unless you count “Twilight” (2008), the first of several laughable films in the “Twilight” series of teen-vampire romance films. She’s not Italian, either. For the most part, the director has been of a keen observer of the quirks and travails of millennial teens. In “Mafia Mamma,” Hardwicke reunites with the great Toni Collette, one of the two protagonists in her 2015 weepie buddy movie “Miss You Already” co-starring Collette and Drew Barrymore.
In “Mafia Mamma,” Collette plays a mother named Kristin unhappily sending her son off to college and dealing with a sexist boss and coworkers. To add to her troubles, Kristin catches her feckless musician husband Paul (Tim Daish) in flagrante delicto with a younger woman in his home studio. At the same time, Kristin, whose maiden name is Balbano, learns that her grandfather, whom she did not know and does not know was a mafia don, has died and that she has been summoned by someone named Bianca (glamorous Italian film star Monica Bellucci) to the funeral.
Encouraged by her best friend Jenny (Sophia Nomvete) to go, Kristin, who confesses to be turned on by Stanley Tucci’s Italian cooking shows, takes the title of Elizabeth Gilbert’s hit confessional “Eat, Pray, Love” in a manner typical of this film – written by J. Michael Feldman, and Debbie Jhoon based on a story by Amanda Sthers – and turns it into a crude mantra. The next thing you know Kristin is greeted at an airport in Italy by two lovable dolts named Aldo (Francesco Mastroianni) and Dante (Alfonso Perugini) and escorted to the funeral in Calabria, where she meets the beautiful Bianca and where the family is attacked by their rival mob family, the Romanos. Kristin is then spirited to Don Balbano’s walled villa in the countryside. Kristin also meets Don Balbano’s hot-headed nephew Fabrizio (Eduardo Scapetta), who has a winged skull tattoo on his neck and wants to be the new don of the family. Unfortunately for Fabrizio, the late Don Giuseppe filmed himself announcing that he wants Kristin, his closest relative, to take over the family, and Bianca is determined to make that happen.
“Mafia Mamma” is basically a fish-out-water comedy in the form of a fantasy adventure taken by an unhappy and unfulfilled middle-aged woman, not unlike “Eat, Pray, Love.” In fact. Kristin, who has dreamed of being a vintner, revives the Balbano vineyard and begins bottling her own product. Before that, she is forced to meet the Romano Don Carlo (Giuseppe Zeno), who pretends to be mad for her only to try to poison her, perhaps a house of mirrors reflection of her husband’s treatment of her.
A lot of the dialogue is in Italian with subtitles. We are not exactly in “The White Lotus” territory. We are in a lower realm, allowing for more slapstick and silliness. Kristin meets a handsome young Italian named Lorenzo (Giulio Corso) with whom she is reunited after the funeral. He falls for her and she, pretending to be divorced, for him. We get a stream of references to “The Godfather,” which Kristin has never seen. People spit, make the sign of the cross and say, “mangia” a lot. In other words, “Mafia Mamma” is replete with Italian culture cliches. You expect someone to spout, “It’s-a-me.”
Yes, there will be cannolis. Bianca, who may be gay, has a state of the art prosthetic leg (?). She gives Kristin a complete Valentino and Gucci makeover. She must look the part of a boss, and she does, and a stiletto heel comes in handy when the Romanos send an assassin named Bruno (Alessandro Cremona) to kill Kristin. Collette (“Nightmare Alley”) is always an asset. She makes Kristin someone we like and care about. It’s too bad we don’t quite care much for the film she’s in.
(“Mafia Mama” contains violence, profanity and sexually suggestive material)