Imagine for a second that you’re a regular soccer mom in the US just going about your day, before discovering that your Italian grandfather, recently deceased, was a mafia don. Now, you are his anointed head of the family.
This is the plot of the 2023 action-comedy Mafia Mamma starring the always brilliant Toni Collette, who hams it up as a self-doubting woman amid a midlife crisis. She works for chauvinists and constantly yearns for a more creative life. It’s here she gets the call to go to the funeral in Italy, where she meets Monica Bellucci.
Along the way, she meets a handsome Italian man, who obviously courts her, while she is schmoozed by the attractive head of the opposing crime family. Without giving too much away, Collette’s character is a klutz whose clumsiness results in situations becoming more absurd by the minute before ultimately concluding in the best outcome.
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The scenarios are pretty obvious, but there are some unexpected twists and some funny scenes along the way– one that comes to mind is when Collette’s character, Kristin, fights off an assassin while remaining present on a video call with her boss.
The humour is slapstick, sometimes too much so. Nobody will win an Oscar in this playful romp of a movie where obvious stereotypes make for hilarious results. But you would expect at least something good in a film commanding such big names like Toni Collette and Monica Bellucci and that’s exactly what you get. If you’re look ingking for a fun romp this weekend, you won’t be disappointed.