In her own home, Italian American working mom Kristin Balbano Jordan (Toni Collette) is hardly the boss. When her deadbeat hubby isnt cheating on her, he calls the shots, and her independent-minded son cant wait to leave for college. At work, her male colleagues undermine her every idea. What Kristin doesnt realize is that its not her destiny to be a doormat. Far from it. Come to find, shes next in line to run Italys well-connected Balbano clan, and though Kristin couldnt have imagined she was heir to an organized crime family, taking charge amounts to an offer she cant refuse.
A fun fish-out-of-water farce with Godfather DNA and a clever female-empowerment kick, Mafia Mamma makes inspired use of Collette, whos never better than when playing women we oughtnt to have underestimated. Here, using stiletto heels to brutally stab a rival clans top assassin, first in the crotch and then in the face, demonstrates that Kristins better suited to the job than her enemies could have imagined. While such a graphic scene may come as a shock in a movie thats more Under the Tuscan Sun than Scarface (He had bits of his scrotum stuffed in his eye socket, reports Monica Bellucci as Bianca, Kristins seen-it-all consiglieri), it more than proves that Donna Balbano deserves some respect.
Thats almost certainly the quality that attracted director Catherine Hardwicke to the material, as Michael J. Feldman and Debbie Jhoons screenplay peppers the situational humor with comments like Never let the man dictate who you are or what you can do a fine sentiment, but there is no man trying to do either in this script, just a pathetic husband (Tim Daish) looking to ride Kristins coattails to Italy. From Kristins perspective, the point of the trip may be to attend her estranged grandfathers funeral, but its also a much-needed excuse to cut loose. She hasnt had sex in three years and literally swoons over the first handsome Italian she sees at the airport, a freshly divorced pasta chef named Fabrizio (Eduardo Scarpetta).
Hardwicke, who comes to the project with such credits as Thirteen and Twilight to her name, is slightly out of her element directing comedy, but Collettes a natural in that department, amplifying the characters gullibility for laughs. At a sit-down with Carlo Romano (Giuseppe Zeo), head of the rival Romano family, Kristin who thinks shes inheriting a wine business mistakes high-stakes territory negotiations for flirtation and tipsily follows him back to his room for a poisoned shot of limoncello. Collette is it all giggles and googly eyes as Kristin endearingly tries too hard to get a little action. While her goombah bodyguards (Alfonso Perugini and Francesco Mastroianni) are otherwise distracted, she accidentally kills the guy whos trying to murder her.
Had the helmer and star leaned just a little less heavily into Kristins eager Eat, pray, fuck! mantra (a joke repeated three too many times), the result might have passed for a family-friendly Touchstone movie, la Sister Act or Sweet Home Alabama. Good on them that they opted for a more grown-up approach. Mafia Mamma isnt shy about celebrating a middle-aged womans libido, the way other movies are, rewarding Kristins desires by fulfilling her pasta chef fantasy amid otherwise broad and slapstick jokes as when Kristin brings a briefcase of fresh-baked muffins to a tense meet-up between the Balbano and Romano capos.
A million same-samey Mafia movies have taught us the codes of Italian organized crime families. Kristin does things differently, and that can be a source of amusement as well as confusion. In a cute (if entirely too neat) montage, she brings her experience marketing pharmaceuticals in the States to a new venture creating a black market for low-priced prescriptions drugs. As for the Balbanos wine operation, the dreck they bottle is all but undrinkable a cover for their illegal dealings. Kristins kind of a lush, which translates into an instant aptitude for oenology, tweaking the formula for instant results.
Kristin claims never to have watched the Godfather movies, but in a way, with Biancas help, she accomplishes what Michael Corleone never could: After assuming control of the family, she manages to make it legitimate. To paraphrase the classic Coppola saga, in mafia country, women are more dangerous than shotguns. While Collette plays the premise for laughs, its about time we saw how women might run such an organization.