Toni Collette commits but mediocre "Mafia Mamma" lets her down

Mafia Mamma (2023)

In case we forgot her breakthrough role in 1994’s Aussie comedy “Muriel’s Wedding,” it’s always nice when Toni Collette gets the chance to be funny and work with lighter material. Too bad, then, that her comic vehicle has to be the mediocre “Mafia Mamma,” which would seem like a fake movie at first glance. There is potential for a dark comedy about a flighty American woman who finally takes time for herself and in the process discovers she has to take over as her Italian family’s mob boss. There’s even potential in Toni Collette as said mob boss, but “Mafia Mamma” lets her down and lets the viewer down. “Mickey Blue Eyes,” this wishes.

Kristin (Collette) has a lot on her plate. Her male boss and colleagues at her pharmaceutical marketing workplace are openly sexist. No sooner has her son left for college than she catches her pathetic man-child rocker husband (Tim Daish) screwing their son’s guidance counselor. At the same time, Kristin receives a call from Bianca (Monica Bellucci), a former secretary who by the request of Kristin’s recently deceased grandfather asks her to come to Rome and settle his affairs. There’s no time like the present for Kristin to make a solo vacation out of the trip — her “Under the Tuscan Sun” or “Eat, Pray, Fuck” (get it?), a running term coined by lawyer best friend Jenny (Sophia Nomvete, bringing gusto to a stock role). Landing in Italy, it takes Kristin a bit to realize her wine-making grandfather, Don Giuseppe, was the boss of the Balbano crime family and has left Kristin to be his successor. Kristin hasn’t even seen “The Godfather,” but she will have to accept her grandfather’s wishes and act like a boss to compromise with a rival crime family. 

As directed by Catherine Hardwicke (who worked with Toni Collette in 2015’s underappreciated tearjerker “Miss You Already”), “Mafia Mamma” doesn’t always nail the tricky balance between silly fish-out-of-water situations and serious mafia violence, all wrapped in a female-empowerment/wish-fulfillment package. Each tone just undercuts the other. Hardwicke has a limp handle on this material, but it is a one-joke premise to begin with. Despite a few amusing variations on that one joke (i.e. the accidental poisoning of a handsome enemy), writers Michael J. Feldman & Debbie Jhoon (working from an original story by Amanda Sthers) take Kristin through an obvious, montage-heavy character evolution from timid working mom to badass peacemaker and entrepreneur. Will she finally hook up with the pasta-making hunk named Lorenzo (Giulio Corso) whom she literally bumps into at the airport? Will she be the mafia boss she has to be or turn things over to bitter, all-bravado cousin Fabrizio (Eduardo Scarpetta)? And, finally, will she improve the product for her grandfather’s winery front? Most of these questions get unsurprising answers.

“Mafia Mamma” isn’t particularly good even on its own terms, but it might be the wackiest and most good-natured movie featuring a heel to a rapey henchman's eyeballs (and groin) and a bad guy falling to his demise into a wine grape crusher. Only once Kristin finally begins to fight back and come into her own does this witless movie get moderately better as it goes along. It doesn’t help that Kristin comes off a little too shrill and foolish before finding her confidence, forcing Toni Collette to play beneath her intelligence or go broad, like when a shoot-out breaks out during her grandfather’s funeral. Collette does try her best, finding any bit of humanity and depth to make Kristin feel like a real person incredulously caught in unbelievable circumstances. Monica Belluci shares several lovely moments with Collette, too, but her character Bianca never really gets a chance to break out until the very end. Collette is so versatile and game for anything, making one want a lot more from “Mafia Mamma.” It’s dumber than it should be but not offensive enough to get whacked.

Grade: C

Bleecker Street is releasing “Mafia Mamma” (101 min.) in theaters on April 14, 2023.