There are certain films that, as an audience member, you can tell were an absolute blast to film. You imagine the on-set atmosphere was one of joy and gaiety, quite often enhanced if said film is being shot on location. Mafia Mamma feels like one of those productions. It’s just a shame the presumed fun behind the scenes didn’t translate to what unfolds on screen.
There’s reliable talent here – Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Lords of Dogtown) is on hand as director, with Toni Collette and Monica Bellucci headlining – and the premise is comedically situational enough to earn an entertaining execution. So it’s all the more disappointing that what transpires on screen feels dated, tonally jarring, and, most unforgiveable, decidedly not funny.
Whether it’s action sequences that fail to frame any physicality (an early shoot-out tries to pass off jumping over discarded tomatoes as a dangerous stunt) or a poorly handled near-rape scenario that tries to sum up its reason for being with a “humorous” payoff – not to mention it’s quite uncomfortably violent that it feels at odds with the film’s intended comedic tone – Hardwicke’s directorial choices don’t speak to proven competence behind the camera thus far; though, bless her, it very much highlights Collette’s dedication to a role far, far beneath her talents.
Just why we are experiencing shoot-outs and attempted sexual assault comes about when Kristin (Collette), a suburban American mother, learns that her Italian grandfather has passed away and his dying command was for her to run his empire. As much as Kristin loves the idea of flitting away to Italy so she can experience her own “Under the Tuscan Sun” – or “Eat Pray Fuck”, as her stereotypically sassy best friend (Sophia Nomvete) exclaims – she has too many responsibilities at home, namely trying to prove her marketing prowess to her chauvinistic co-workers and care for her man-child husband, Paul (Tim Daish).
When Paul cheats on her, Kristin near-immediately jets it for her supposed mother land, meeting her grandfather’s suspicious underlings, overseen by the sensually stoic Bianca (Bellucci, also falling victim to the film’s overall mismanagement, with every one of her line deliveries coming off as if she’s dubbed her own dialogue in post-production). As much as Bianca assures Kristin that her grandfather made wine, it isn’t difficult to see he was a mafia don and, naturally, Kristin wants no part of it.
What follows from hereon is pretty expected fare, with Kristin coming into her own as a more confident boss figure, hoping her cheery exposition will disarm the enemy empires that are seeking certain territories to rule in the wake of her grandfather’s passing. There’s a brief running gag that she unknowingly exceeds her reputation by killing high-up figures and brutal-minded henchmen by sheer luck – the latter involved in the near-rape sequence that sees her bludgeon a man to death with her high heel shoe, shredding his scrotum and gouging at his eye in the process – but its handling favours a more violent temperament that’s at odds with the farcical performance of Collette (it feels like she’s always playing to the back of the room with her exaggerated expressions), leaving Mafia Mamma a figure unsure of which personality it wants to adopt.
Tonal inconsistencies aren’t always the kiss of death for films attempting a mashing of genres, but when Mafia Mamma fails to elicit wit on the most basic level, the offsetting of its attempted comedy with shocking violence is even more of a variability. And outside of its violent and comedy quota, character dynamics feel at odds with their own trajectory throughout too, with Bianca perhaps the film’s biggest culprit, earning a bizarre plot arc revolving around her prosthetic leg and detailing as such with a confusing sexual energy. So many choices made beg more questions than can be answered, and because Mafia Mamma is so insultingly void of jocularity, it can’t be helped but to dwell on the how’s and why’s of every decision made throughout each scene.
ONE STAR (OUT OF FIVE)
Mafia Mamma is now screening in Australian theatres.
