Drawn in by Toni Collette’s undeniable gift and just the very existence of Monica Bellucci, there’s not a single second when I wasn’t thoroughly amused by Catherine Harwicke’s action-comedy Mafia Mamma. It takes a hell of a lot of gusto to pull off something that has been attempted and crushed by multiple genres—and that too by making a go of it against the risky backdrop of an immensely exaggerated Italian stereotype. Believe me when I say that I was relieved to get through it without seeing one Italian hand gesture joke. And that is not even the most impossible mission that Mafia Mamma has overcome. Amongst a flood of cringe-inducing action comedies that are too coy for bloodshed and too restrained by their self-consciousness to strike up a relevant conversation with their sense of humor, Harwicke’s Mafia Mamma strikes a home run with its...
- 5/6/2023
- by Lopamudra Mukherjee
- Film Fugitives
In her own home, Italian American working mom Kristin Balbano Jordan (Toni Collette) is hardly the boss. When her deadbeat hubby isn’t cheating on her, he calls the shots, and her independent-minded son can’t wait to leave for college. At work, her male colleagues undermine her every idea. What Kristin doesn’t realize is that it’s not her destiny to be a doormat. Far from it. Come to find, she’s next in line to run Italy’s well-connected Balbano clan, and though Kristin couldn’t have imagined she was heir to an organized crime family, taking charge amounts to an offer she can’t refuse.
A fun fish-out-of-water farce with “Godfather” DNA and a clever female-empowerment kick, “Mafia Mamma” makes inspired use of Collette, who’s never better than when playing women we oughtn’t to have underestimated. Here, using stiletto heels to brutally stab a rival clan’s top assassin,...
A fun fish-out-of-water farce with “Godfather” DNA and a clever female-empowerment kick, “Mafia Mamma” makes inspired use of Collette, who’s never better than when playing women we oughtn’t to have underestimated. Here, using stiletto heels to brutally stab a rival clan’s top assassin,...
- 4/12/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
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