MAFIA MAMMA

US, 2023, 101 minutes, Colour.

Toni Collette, Monica Bellucci, Sophia Nomvete, Eduardo Scarpetta, Tim Daish..

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke.

Ditzy.

That might be one of the more positive adjectives to describe the experience of watching Mafia Mamma. Yes, it is a farce. And it presented more than farcically. The basic premise is acceptable, a housewife, down on her own self-esteem, an unfaithful husband, son whom she dotes on leaving for college, ridicule from her male bosses, she is suddenly informed that she has inherited her Italian grandfather’s estate.

This is Kristin, Toni Collette, always a welcome presence on screen, but asked to do many impossible things (and some of them she does well, especially some violence towards Italian gangsters), a character who is inconsistent throughout, the screenwriters deciding to add this element, then another, then a third, some absurd disconnections, so that we never quite know where Kristin is going or her she really is.

At one stage, Kristin says she has never seen The Godfather (actually, she says it several times) and it might have saved her a lot of hassle if she had seen it, blithely believing in the situation that her grandfather had left her a wine business, being unable to pick the sinister gangsters as soon as we the, the audience, did, drawing on all the Mafia films instead of having to improvise in her dealings all the time, dithering at one minute, desperate the next, becoming very smart, and, actually, becoming the Mafia Mamma.

A rather dimwitted philandering husband turns up. So does her darling son. She is guided through all the adventures by the assistant to her dead grandfather, played by Monica Bellucci. And, she is immediately smitten by a charming man at the airport, teaming up with him, his skill as a chef with pastor, his dominating mother (and quite a discovery when she finds out who he really is).

For this reviewer, some of the funniest scenes were in the advertising office, the three men, a couple very smarmy in their superiority with ad campaigns (which are also ditzy) and the scenes of their phone calls with Kristin, missing out on all the mayhem. Kristin’s friend, Jenny, a big and burly lawyer who takes no prisoners, also turns up. There is some humour also in her bodyguards, a team whose antics might remind older audiences of Abbott and Costello.

It is surprising to find that this film is been directed by Catherine Hardwicke who directed some telling films about teenagers, 13, as well as doing some Twilight directing.

Yes, many audiences will enjoy the very un-demanding farce. On the other hand, this reviewer found a quotation summary from Rotten Tomatoes and not assent, "Riddled with stereotypes, fatally unfunny, and a total tonal mishmash, Mafia Mamma is a criminal waste of Toni Collette.