mafia mother movie review

Mafia Mamma

Stereotypical Italian music—florid strings and soulful trumpets—swells as gunshots ring out and dead bodies and squashed tomatoes pile up around a gorgeous stone fountain. A woman in black stilettos walks through the carnage. It’s Monica Bellucci . She spots a man with a gun in the distance. “This means war,” she says as she spits on the ground, and the film’s title “Mafia Mamma”—in “ The Godfather ” font—is the finishing touch that lets us know just what kind of pastiche we’re in for. 

Unfortunately, the film, directed by Catherine Hardwicke from a screenplay by Michael J. Feldman and Debbie Jhoon , based on a story by Amanda Sthers , does not focus on Bellucci’s mafia general Bianca. Instead, we’re introduced to meek, perpetually-clad-in-beige helicopter mom Kristin ( Toni Collette , who also serves as producer). Her husband Paul (Tim Daish) is an unfaithful man-child in a mediocre band, her son Domenick ( Tommy Rodger ) has just gone to college, and her job marketing beauty pharmaceuticals to cancer patients is as unfulfilling and soul-crushing as it sounds. Her only sexual gratification comes from watching Stanley Tucci ’s show on Food Network. Just when things look like they can’t get worse, her life changes irrevocably when her estranged grandfather dies, and she’s called to Italy for the funeral.

After the success of Hardwicke and Collette’s last collaboration, the wonderfully layered female friendship in 2015’s dramedy “ Miss You Already ,” a re-teaming was definitely welcomed. However, “Mafia Mamma” is a premise in search of fleshed-out characters. The Italian and clueless American stereotypes wouldn’t be so terrible if the film succeeded in being a satire, or at least the jokes were ever funny. Instead, “Mafia Mamma” lives in the uncanny valley between incompetent and unwatchable. 

Somewhere in here is a commentary on how women of a certain age are treated, but the film’s ideas are deeply rooted in outdated notions of female empowerment. Kristin is the best marketer at her pharmaceutical company, yet the three men she’s always in meetings with disregard her ideas in favor of babes on jet skis. But it’s unclear if Kristin even knows her work is detrimental to women. In the mafia family in which she now finds herself the Don, her male cousin feels entitled to be in charge, despite Kristin’s new ideas revitalizing the (still illegal) business. It’s the ‘girl bossification’ of the mafia. 

Worst of all is the half-hearted attempt to mix “chick flick” Italian iconography into the mob movie milieu. Although Kristin says she wants her “Under the Tuscan Sun” or “Eat. Pray. Love.” moment, the writers don’t seem to know what those films are about. There are few scenes of Kristin orgiastically eating Italian food, and no shots could even remotely be labeled as food porn. She never really gets to know the town of Lazio or its people. Even the beautiful countryside is barely filmed. Kristin herself is later portrayed as not aware of the films she evoked. At one point, a rival mob boss has to explain limoncello to her in a scene that is almost completely word-for-word ripped from the movie version of … “Under the Tuscan Sun.”

Her best friend Jenny (Sophia Nomvete) tells her she should “Eat, Pray, F**k,” yet the film never grants Kristin the pleasure. After a five-minute scene in which she fights off a would-be murderer and rapist, offing him for good in an incredibly gruesome manner, she and her new lover Lorenzo (Giulio Corso) make out for a brisk 30 seconds. The film cuts to black before any of the sex actually happens. 

Oddly, this fight sequence is the only scene in the whole film with any of Hardwicke’s biting personality. As Kristin fights for her life, Hardwicke cuts between the fight and a Zoom meeting where her male co-workers plan out yet another sexist ad campaign for an anti-aging drug they plan to market to older women. The juxtaposition between Kristin literally being attacked and the metaphorical attack on women through the misogynistic advertisements is thrilling. If only the rest of the film showed a modicum of this same intentionality, it might have been something special. 

“Mafia Mamma” plays like nothing more than an excuse for Collette, Hardwicke, and company to vacation in Italy. But the audience isn’t even granted a trip worth remembering. Viewers searching for a virtual escape to Italy are better off sticking with Kristin’s beloved Stanley Tucci food show. At least that series aims for an authentic appreciation of the culture. 

Now playing in theaters.

Marya E. Gates

Marya E. Gates is a freelance film and culture writer based in Los Angeles and Chicago. She studied Comparative Literature at U.C. Berkeley, and also has an overpriced and underused MFA in Film Production. Other bylines include Moviefone, The Playlist, Crooked Marquee, Nerdist, and Vulture. 

• Toni Collette as Kristin
• Monica Bellucci as Bianca
• Eduardo Scarpetta as Fabrizio
• Alex Heffes

Writer (based on an original story by)

• Amanda Sthers
• Catherine Hardwicke
• Debbie Jhoon
• J. Michael Feldman

Cinematographer

• Patrick Murguia
• Waldemar Centeno

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Mafia Mamma

An American mom inherits her grandfather's mafia empire in Italy. Guided by the firm's consigliere, she hilariously defies everyone's expectations as the new head of the family business. An American mom inherits her grandfather's mafia empire in Italy. Guided by the firm's consigliere, she hilariously defies everyone's expectations as the new head of the family business. An American mom inherits her grandfather's mafia empire in Italy. Guided by the firm's consigliere, she hilariously defies everyone's expectations as the new head of the family business.

• Catherine Hardwicke
• Amanda Sthers
• J. Michael Feldman
• Debbie Jhoon
• Toni Collette
• Monica Bellucci
• Sophia Nomvete
• 116 User reviews
• 75 Critic reviews
• 42 Metascore

Top cast 28

• Don Giuseppe Balbano

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• Maria AKA 'Aunt Esmeralda'
• Rudy AKA 'Lorenzo'

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• Trivia In The Godfather (1972), oranges are displayed to foreshadow a death. It happens in this movie as well during the funeral procession and later on with "orange" muffins.
• Goofs Monica Bellucci 's left lower limb ("thigh, knee and leg") is obviously not a prosthetic one.

Bianca : [to Kristen] You look like a librarian in a library, not a porno.

• Alternate versions The UK release was cut, the distributor chose to make cuts to a scene of strong gory violence in order to obtain a 15 classification. An uncut 18 classification was available.
• Connections Referenced in Brad Tries Podcasting: Book Club 2/Knights of the Zodiac/Blackberry (2023)
• Soundtracks Il Primo Whisky Written by Luciano Beretta , Mario Bertolazzi , Marcello Marchesi Performed by Gianni Morandi Published by Universal Music Publishing MGB Ltd. on behalf of Universal Music Publishing Ricordi Srl c/o 1963 Sony BMG Music Entertainment (Italy) S.p.A. Licensed by Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited

User reviews 116

• Apr 14, 2023
• How long is Mafia Mamma? Powered by Alexa
• April 14, 2023 (United States)
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Cornerstone Films
• Roku [united states]
• Bracciano, Rome, Lazio, Italy
• Edver Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Apr 16, 2023

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• Runtime 1 hour 41 minutes

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‘Mafia Mamma’ Review: Toni Collette Inherits a Crime Family in Fun Female-Empowerment Farce

Tired of being disrespected in her day-to-day life, an Italian American mom discovers she’s tougher than she thought when her estranged grandfather dies, leaving her to manage his criminal operation.

By Peter Debruge

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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.

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Had the helmer and star leaned just a little less heavily into Kristin’s eager “Eat, pray, fuck!” mantra (a joke repeated three too many times), the result might have passed for a family-friendly Touchstone movie, à la “Sister Act” or “Sweet Home Alabama.” Good on them that they opted for a more grown-up approach. “Mafia Mamma” isn’t shy about celebrating a middle-aged woman’s libido, the way other movies are, rewarding Kristin’s 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. Kristin’s 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 Bianca’s 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, it’s about time we saw how women might run such an organization.

Reviewed at Wilshire Screening Room, April 6, 2023. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 101 MIN.

• Production: A Bleecker Street release, presented with Ingenious Media, in association with LipSync, Cornerstone, of an IDEA(L), Vocab Films, New Sparta production. Producers: Amanda Sthers, Toni Collette, Christopher Simon. Executive producers: Alison Thompson, Mark Gooder, Catherine Hardwicke, Jerome Booth, Jen Turner, Peter Touche, Andrea Scarso, Christelle Conan, Norman Merry, Peter Hampden, Evangelo Kioussis, Simon Baxter, Marc Goldberg, Andrew Karpen, Kent Sanderson.
• Crew: Director: Catherine Hardwicke. Screenplay: Michael J. Feldman & Debbie Jhoon; story: Amanda Sthers. Camera: Patrick Murguia. Editor: Waldemar Centeno. Music: Alex Heffes.
• With: Toni Collette, Monica Bellucci, Sophia Nomvete, Eduardo Scarpetta, Alfonso Perugini, Francesco Mastroianni, Giulio Corso, Dora Romano, Giuseppe Zeno, Vincenzo Pirrotta, Tommy Rodger, Alessandro Cremona, Alessandro Bressanello, Tim Daish. (English, Italian dialogue)

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‘mafia mamma’ review: toni collette and monica bellucci in catherine hardwicke’s strained mob comedy.

The latest from the 'Twilight' director is about a woman who travels to Italy for a funeral only to reluctantly become a crime boss.

By Frank Scheck

Frank Scheck

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Nicholas hoult faces stunning realization in clint eastwood's 'juror no. 2' trailer, cam gigandet, sam trammell action-thriller '72 hours' lands at brainstorm media (exclusive), mafia mamma.

Encouraged by her workout buddy Jenny (Sophia Nomvete), Kristin heads to Rome for what she hopes will be, after the funeral at least, an “Eat Pray Fuck” experience since she hasn’t had sex in three years. After a “meet cute” at the airport with the much younger, hunky Lorenzo (Giulio Corso), she’s greeted by a pair of bodyguards (an amusingly Laurel and Hardyish Alfonso Perugini and Francesco Matroianni), who escort her to her grandfather’s palatial estate.

It isn’t long before Kristin discovers that she’s actually been summoned to take her grandfather’s place as head of the local crime family, with Bianca serving as her trusted consiglieri. The position is not without its risks, as Kristin finds out when an assassination attempt is made during her grandfather’s funeral and a competing crime boss tries to poison her during a private meeting.

If that comment, or the graphic depiction of said act, strikes you as amusing, you may be the target audience for Mafia Mamma . The film’s creatives — including director Catherine Hardwicke ( Twilight ), screenwriters Michael J. Feldman and Debbie Jhoon, and producer Amanda Sthers, who came up with the original story — seem to think they’re trafficking in feminist themes. But despite Collette’s talents, the central character seems distinctly dumbed-down in her pursuits. She doesn’t come across nearly as well as Bellucci’s Bianca, who delivers one of the film’s few funny lines after Kristin finally sleeps with Lorenzo. “I thought that once you had sex, you’d calm down a bit,” she says, unwittingly speaking for the film’s audience. Meanwhile, Collette is saddled with such dumb bits as giddily announcing “I made muffins!” at a meeting with rival crime families.

In contrast to Bellucci, who underplays in dignified fashion, Collette works hard, very hard, to sell the concept and her character. That she fails is not an insult to her formidable gifts, but rather due to the flimsiness of the material, which seems better suited to the small screen. If you want to see a truly witty comedy dealing with similar themes, stick with rewatching Jonathan Demme’s terrific 1988 film Married to the Mob .   

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‘Mafia Mamma’ Review: An Offer You Can Refuse

Toni Collette has no chance of saving this jumble of Mob clichés and female empowerment.

• Share full article

By Jeannette Catsoulis

Sweet Tony Soprano, “Mafia Mamma” is bad. And not just disappointingly bad, in the way of late-career James Cameron, or irritatingly puerile, like virtually anything featuring Roberto Benigni. No, “Mafia Mamma” is so wincingly awful it makes you question the professional bona fides of everyone who had a hand in greenlighting its existence.

This probably sounds harsh. But, as someone who has long respected the work of the film’s director, Catherine Hardwicke — whose abilities were evident from the get-go with “Thirteen” (2003) and, five years later, the first and best entry in the “Twilight” troop — I was jarred. A clodhopping farce interrupted by seizures of cartoonish violence, Hardwicke’s latest outing posits that the best distraction from an empty nest and a cheating spouse is to dash to Italy and join the Cosa Nostra.

At least, that’s what Kristin (Toni Collette), a self-effacing California housewife, does when she’s summoned to the Roman funeral of her estranged grandfather, a Mafia don, and learns that she is his designated replacement. Having recently waved her son off to college and surprised her no-count husband in flagrante, Kristin was hoping for — to paraphrase the sage advice of her best friend, played by a delightfully spicy Sophia Nomvete — an eat-pray-fornicate adventure. The first would be easy; the less said about the last, the better.

Trite, charmless and entirely without grace, “Mafia Mamma” weaves a wearying string of Mob chestnuts into a shallow empowerment narrative. Initially enshrining Kristin’s doormat personality — before leaving for Italy, she prepares a selection of Tupperware meals for her faithless husband — the screenplay (by Michael J. Feldman and Debbie Jhoon) soon has her lusting after an airport pickup (Giulio Corso) and attempting coitus with the oily boss of a rival family (Eduardo Scarpetta). Surviving multiple assassination attempts apparently does wonders for the libido.

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Cameron diaz explains why stepping away from acting in 2014 was “something i had to do”, ‘mafia mamma’ review: toni collette becomes the reluctant godmother in mild italian mob comedy.

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Upon learning that the grandfather she never knew, Don Giuseppe Balbano (Alessandro Bressanello), has died, and left her as his only remaining heir to take care of his business, she finds encouragement from her bestie, Jenny (a lively Sophia Nomvete) to take the opportunity of attending his funeral in Rome as a way to change things up, find a little Eat, Pray, Love at this point in her life. So off she goes only to land in the danger zone as she discovers (after an assassination attempt at the funeral) that grandpa was actually the head of Italy’s Balbano Mafia clan and murdered by a rival (Eduardo Scarpetta), leaving instructions that Kristin succeed him as head of the family “business.” In industry terms this then becomes a “fish out of water” setup.

In its own way, veteran director Catherine Hardwicke ( Twilight ) has turned all this into a more mainstream feminist comedy, a vehicle for Collette, who lifts it up a few notches and makes it all passable and likable enough for its 100-minute running time. Without the likes of Collette and Bellucci, however, we would be in trouble here, but they are smart enough pros in every sense of the word to make this all go down easy enough. Nomvete has her moments as well in an Italian courtroom of all places, and Alfonso Perugini and Francesco Mastroianni also manage to delight as Kristin’s new bodyguards.

If you don’t ask too much of it, Mafia Mamma may fill the bill for you if you miss the kind of standard studio-type comedy the studios have largely abandoned — forgettable but harmless. This one is released by Bleecker Street . It opens Friday. Producers are Sthers, Christopher Simon and Collette.

Title: Mafia Mamma Distributor: Bleecker Street Release date: April 14, 2023 Director: Catherine Hardwicke Screenwriters: Michael J. Feldman and Debbie Jhoon (from a story by Amanda Sthers) Cast: Toni Collette, Monica Bellucci, Sophia Nomvete, Alfonso Perugini, Francesco Mastroianni, Giulio Corso, Eduardo Scarpetta, Tim Daish, Tommy Rodger Rating: R Running time: 1 hr 41 min

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Mafia Mamma Reviews

There were plenty of Italian stereo types to choose from

Full Review | Apr 24, 2024

The only reason this was watchable was Toni Colette

So painfully, shockingly unfunny that I couldn’t help wonder whether Collette and Bellucci were either blackmailed into doing it or were paying off on a lost bet.

Full Review | Original Score: 0/4 | Mar 16, 2024

...a sitcom-like misfire that feels much longer than its 101 minutes.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 30, 2023

…Mafia Mamma’s flaws aren’t hard to see, but as an undemanding evening time-passer, it just about reworks the old Bob Hope fish-out-of-water/American abroad trope to passable effect….

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 29, 2023

The romance is thin, the comedy lacking and the overall story is incredibly exaggerated but Mafia Mamma is a fun holiday for the mind.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 16, 2023

Bellucci looks as if she is thinking about something else in every scene. It isn’t long before you’re doing the same.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 15, 2023

Collette's comic timing is exemplary, and Monica Bellucci shines as the Cosa Nostra's ultra-cool consigliere, but a few faint-hearted viewers may be shocked by some of the more over-the-top violence.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 26, 2023

The constant references to The Godfather and the characters’ utter disappointment in Kristin’s lack of knowledge of the film is a running gag, which might be exhausting to some viewers.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2023

Mafia Mamma doesn’t know how to blend elements into a seamless whole and that makes for a piece that has some exciting flashes but lacks the ability to weave together something that is interesting and sustainably entertaining.

Full Review | Sep 6, 2023

The blending of action and comedy for the most is inconsistent, and the film never nails either genre – unlike the gold standard, “The Spy Who Dumped Me” (2018), which delivered seamless action and laughs.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 16, 2023

The final result isn’t a felony of fail, but it is more than a misdemeanor of a missed opportunity.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Aug 9, 2023

Mafia Mamma sustains itself on its funny Collette and Bellucci duet. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 25, 2023

Mafia Mamma never quite manages to find the right tone, and instead gets bogged down in its attempt to be a dark comedy. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Jul 10, 2023

Even if nothing is even remotely believable, it's still undemanding fun.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 13, 2023

The running joke that nobody has seen The Godfather is an apt metaphor for everyone involved with this who have clearly not even seen any of the bad mob comedies that run roughshod over this violent, assault-filled wannabe.

Full Review | Original Score: 0.5/4 | Jun 9, 2023

Mafia Mamma is a throwback to the turn of the century The Sopranos-inspired movie comedies like Analyze This and Mickey Blue Eyes. However, the script is too light on humor, too heavy on gratuitous violence, and too lazy on character cliches to enjoy.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | May 10, 2023

The juxtaposition of banality and extreme violence is supposed to be humorous, but it’s merely shrill and miscalculated, an attempt at farce that’s farcical in itself.

Full Review | May 4, 2023

...a silly screwball comedy attempt with Toni Collette giving an inept Lucille Ball imitation...Even with talent, it would take a thaumaturge to make something of this bunkum.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | May 2, 2023

[Hardwicke] amasses little jokes as if they were innovative, loiters her story with the very same clichés she's trying to parody, and reduces her characters to stick figure sketches of predictable ideas... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 27, 2023

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‘Mafia Mamma’: Review

By Tim Grierson, Senior US Critic 2023-04-12T15:00:00+01:00

Toni Collette shines as a suburban housewife turned Italian mafia mob boss in Catherine Hardwicke’s predicatable comedy

Dir: Catherine Hardwicke. US. 2022. 101mins

A suburban mother at a crossroads reinvents herself in surprising fashion — by becoming a mob boss — in Mafia Mamma , a high-spirited comedy that goes a long way on the strength of Toni Collette’s delightfully daffy performance. It is a shame that director Catherine Hardwicke’s film cannot match its star’s inspired turn, settling for a likeable but strained fish-out-of-water tale in which our unlikely hero discovers that she is the heir to a powerful mafia empire and quickly gets used to calling the shots. Satirising the patronising ’women of a certain age’ escapism of scenic dramas like Eat Pray Love while acknowledging the dilemma women can face once they are pigeonholed as wives and mothers, Mafia Mamma struggles to juggle romance, action and laughs.

Outside of Collette’s energetic comic turn,  Mafia Mamma  mostly proceeds as one would imagine

Opening in the US on April 14, the picture boasts a fetching premise and winning chemistry between Collette and costar Monica Bellucci. Nonetheless, Mafia Mamma is a modest affair and probably not destined for major grosses — although it does offer plenty of cosy amusements, making it a viable streaming option down the road.

Kristin (Collette) lives in Los Angeles with her ineffectual husband Paul (Tim Daish), despondent that her only child has left for college. She is shocked to learn that Paul is having an affair, and travels to Italy where she connects with her estranged family after the death of her grandfather. Kristin soon realises, however, that she has not just been summoned for the funeral: it was her grandfather’s wish that she take over the family business, which Kristin didn’t realise involved criminal enterprises. With the help of his trusted consiglieri Bianca (Bellucci), the law-abiding Kristin reluctantly accepts this frightening and exciting new role as a mafia queenpin.

Hardwicke, who last directed 2022’s Prisoner’s Daughter , reunites with Collette, one of the stars of her tear-jerking comedy-drama Miss You Already , to deliver a broad comedy that is unashamed to be silly. For better or worse, Mafia Mamma never tries to justify its preposterous premise, instead thrusting the sheltered Kristin into a dangerous situation for which she is utterly unprepared. (In one of the film’s mildly amusing running jokes, Kristin hasn’t even seen the Godfather movies.) But she is going to have to learn on the job as a rival mob family wants to eliminate her clan, leading to attempted murder, bloody showdowns and dismembered bodies.

Rather than grounding the script in something real, Collette provocatively goes in the opposite direction to play Kristin as someone who is constantly reacting in outsized ways to events happening around her. Mad at her husband and hungry for a hookup — she imagines herself as one of those American women in films like Eat Pray Love and Under The Tuscan Sun who meet a dashing European on vacation — Kristin is more interested in romance than in being a mob boss. Collette is very funny articulating her character’s utter cluelessness in dealing with vicious mafia types and, while the film’s sitcom-y unreality can frustrate, Collette’s performance is so controlled in its cheerful eccentricity that the convoluted plotting and lack of believability is not quite as galling. She makes this suburban mother’s growing confidence about thinking for herself — rather than worrying about others’ needs, as she has all her life — a rewarding transformation.

Unfortunately, outside of Collette’s energetic comic turn, Mafia Mamma mostly proceeds as one would imagine. Kristin gets her wish and meets a sensitive local hunk, Lorenzo (Giulio Corso), which allows the character to reconnect with her sexual side after years of feeling rejected by her husband. (Pointedly, Kristin works at a marketing firm where she’s the only woman — and is made to feel old because she’s in her 40s, a demographic her youth-obsessed coworkers want to avoid in their advertising.) But those brief flashes of insight mostly take a backseat to the uninteresting war brewing between the rival mafia families. Whether it’s Alex Heffes’ score, which playfully echoes Nino Rota’s Godfather themes, or a script that pokes gentle fun at mobster tropes, Mafia Mamma ’s humour isn’t especially sharp — the jokes tend to be fairly predictable, and the story’s twists are easy to see coming.

As the steely consiglieri, Bellucci is appealingly deadpan opposite Collette’s zanier antics. But the rest of the supporting cast, including Sophia Nomvete as Kristin’s requisite vivacious best friend Jenny, is not as memorable. Collette takes such risks, daring to let Kristin be foolish but also incredibly openhearted and lovable, that what is otherwise fairly pedestrian about Mafia Mamma is even more apparent. Kristin eventually comes out of her shell, but the film keeps hemming Collette in.

Production companies: IDEA(L), Vocab Films, New Sparta

International sales: Cornerstone, [email protected]  

Producers: Amanda Sthers, Toni Collette, Christopher Simon 

Screenplay: Michael J. Feldman & Debbie Jhoon, based on an original story by Amanda Sthers  

Cinematography: Patrick Murguia

Production design: Livia Borgognoni

Editing: Waldemar Centeno

Music: Alex Heffes

Main cast: Toni Collette, Monica Bellucci, Sophia Nomvete, Eduardo Scarpetta 

• United States

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Review: Toni Collette is all in, but mob farce ‘Mafia Mamma’ is all wrong

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You’ve got to hand it to Toni Collette — nearly three decades after bursting onto the scene in “Muriel’s Wedding,” the Australian actress remains averse to doing things in half-measures.

From her truly disturbing, take-no-prisoners turn in Ari Aster’s “Hereditary” to assuming numerous identities on several seasons of “United States of Tara,” for which she received an Emmy Award, Collette has never shied away from plunging into the deep end.

Unfortunately, her admirable work ethic goes unrewarded in “Mafia Mamma,” a forced, flaccid farce about a suburban Italian American wife and mother who travels to Rome and becomes a mob boss that leaves a trail of bloody corpses and anemic, tone-deaf gags in its wake.

When Collette’s people-pleasing Kristin Balbano Jordan is summoned to Rome for her grandfather’s funeral, she has little reason not to book the flight: Her son (Tommy Rodger) is heading off to college, she discovers she’s married to a serial adulterer (Tim Daish) and she’s dealing with her marketing firm’s misogynistic work environment.

But upon arrivingin the city of her birth, Kristin realizes not only that she has stepped into an escalating turf war, but that her late grandfather, Don Giuseppe, has named her his successor as head of the Balbano family business, including its wine-making operations.

She launched the ‘Twilight’ films. But Hollywood franchises kept going to men

With her new comedy ‘Mafia Mamma,’ director Catherine Hardwicke sends a message about underappreciated women. Including herself.

April 13, 2023

Although Kristin would rather be engaging in a revenge tryst with the handsome young man (Giulio Corso) she met at the airport, she reluctantly abides by Don Giuseppe’s wishes, shown the ropes by savvy consigliere, Bianca (a tragically squandered Monica Bellucci).

While the fish-out-of-water story might suggest a harmless goof on the sharp 1988 Michelle Pfeiffer comedy, “Married to the Mob” with a more contemporary infusion of female empowerment, the execution struggles from the outset to find a sustainable comedic pitch.

Director Catherine Hardwicke , whose previous output includes the first installment of “The Twilight Saga” and the acclaimed coming-of-age drama “Thirteen” (she previously worked with Collette on 2015’s “Miss You Already” ), ultimately seems content to let all the haphazardly flung funny bits land where they may.

Working from a caricature-leaden script credited to J. Michael Feldman and Debbie Jhoon, Hardwicke continually mistakes shrill slapstick for the type of light, playful satire required of the high-concept set-up.

As a result, even though filming took place entirely on location in Italy, the production, complete with its “Godfather-esque” musical cues, somehow ends up packing all the convincing cultural authenticity of Hot Pockets.

Likely acknowledging that the cartoonish characters inhabit an emotional range from frenetic to frantic, Collette proceeds to dive in and give it her all, most notably in a jarringly out-of-place, violent confrontation with a would-be rapist.

But even though there’s something admittedly remarkable about witnessing the formerly meek and mild Kristin using one of her high heels to repeatedly spike her attacker in the crotch and eyeballs with such unbridled, Nicolas Cage-level abandon , “Mafia Mamma” nevertheless makes an offer that really can be refused.

‘Mafia Mamma’

Rated: R, for bloody violence, sexual content and language Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes Playing: Starts April 14 in general release

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Parents' guide to, mafia mamma.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 1 Review
• Kids Say 3 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Violent female empowerment comedy has sex, blood, language.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Mafia Mamma is a crime comedy about Kristen (Toni Collette), a mild-mannered American woman who unexpectedly inherits an Italian criminal organization. It's a woman-centered project (women wrote, directed, produced, and star in the film), and it shows women being supportive of each…

Why Age 16+?

Extremely strong language throughout, including "ass," "a--holes," "bastards," "

Explicit violence that can feel particularly shocking given the movie's largely

Kristen is on a quest for sex, which is discussed in crude terms. Sex is depicte

Expensive Italian brands are mentioned by name and depicted as glamorous. Name-b

Positive focus on drinking wine and Limoncello. Main character gets drunk. Krist

Any Positive Content?

Women should support one another. Loving and supporting others doesn't mean losi

Kristen starts off so nice that it's swallowing her up. But once she's put in a

This female-written and -directed story explores the female experience and follo

Extremely strong language throughout, including "ass," "a--holes," "bastards," "boob," "d--k," "d--khead," "fart," "goddammit," "motherf----rs," "porno," "p---y," "s--t," "stupid," "what the hell," and constant use of "f--k." "Oh my god!" and "Jesus!" used as exclamations.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Explicit violence that can feel particularly shocking given the movie's largely comic tone. An attacker is beaten and brutally stabbed to death, with sensitive body parts mutilated and blood and tissue flying. An eyeball rolls on the floor. Several shoot-outs with bleeding, dead bodies. A man planning a sexual assault rubs his crotch as he states his intentions to his victim and then attempts to rape her. Dead people are dismembered with a saw, including close-ups when an appendage is separated from the body. Hard slap. Someone falls into heavy machinery.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Kristen is on a quest for sex, which is discussed in crude terms. Sex is depicted and implied; no explicit nudity. Large photographs of women's near-naked rear ends are seen in advertising materials, including to imply pornography. Close-up of cleavage. Dating, romance, and infidelity. References to masturbation. Discussion around erectile dysfunction mediation.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Expensive Italian brands are mentioned by name and depicted as glamorous. Name-brand prescription drugs are mentioned, some as more of a punchline.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Positive focus on drinking wine and Limoncello. Main character gets drunk. Kristen works in advertising and marketing for a pharmaceutical company, and medications are mentioned by name.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Women should support one another. Loving and supporting others doesn't mean losing yourself. You can find new ways to do old things. But there's also lots of betrayal and suspicion.

Positive Role Models

Kristen starts off so nice that it's swallowing her up. But once she's put in a position of power, she starts to see that she has leadership qualities and can transform power used in criminal enterprises into positive efforts that help others. Bianca is a loyal employee of "The Family" but looks out for Kristen, and they form a friendship. Still, they work for the mafia. Characters frequently like and betray one another. Kristen's husband is weak and selfish.

Diverse Representations

This female-written and -directed story explores the female experience and follows a woman who rediscovers herself and becomes powerful. Shows importance of women supporting one another. But all notable characters except one are White (the exception is the main character's best friend, who, while smart and confident, is squarely in stereotypical "sassy Black friend" territory). Italian characters are played by Italian actors, but they're virtually all very clichéd "mafioso" portrayals. Kristen's best friend is a smart, confident Black female attorney. A minor character is a trans woman.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that Mafia Mamma is a crime comedy about Kristen ( Toni Collette ), a mild-mannered American woman who unexpectedly inherits an Italian criminal organization. It's a woman-centered project (women wrote, directed, produced, and star in the film), and it shows women being supportive of each other. But it also leans heavily into some stereotypes, including the "sassy Black friend" and Italian mafiosi. And while the female empowerment messages are strong, there's also lots of bloody violence, bad decisions, and crude language. Kristen is on a quest to have sex with an Italian man (her mantra is "Eat, Pray, F--k"), and the movie has many sexual situations. There's also an attempted rape in which the attacker rubs his crotch in front of the victim. Violence isn't constant but is shocking and graphic when it happens, and includes shootings, sawing off body parts, and a brutal, bloody stabbing. Expect pervasive strong language ("p---y," "d--k," and constant use of "f--k") and quite a bit of drinking. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (1)
• Kids say (3)

Based on 1 parent review

Good got some laughs but too gory cloudent enyoy in 100%

What's the story.

In MAFIA MAMMA, American empty-nester Kristen ( Toni Collette ) learns that her estranged grandfather has passed away. She must travel to Italy to settle his estate. Upon arrival, she learns that her grandfather was actually a powerful Mafia don and has left "the family business" in her charge.

Is It Any Good?

With its lovely Italian setting and female empowerment messages , this crime comedy has a promising setup, but it loses its appeal thanks to its silly, coarse execution. Director Catherine Hardwicke is known for female-centered films that are beautifully shot but can have off-putting storytelling, and Mafia Mamma isn't a departure in that sense. Kristen may feel very familiar to many viewers, especially women who are used to taking care of others. She's a people pleaser, putting others' needs in front of her own, staying quiet and polite, and being deferential to her husband and male bosses. When she's suddenly put in a position of ultimate power -- running a crime organization in another country, away from those who expect her to behave in a certain way -- she's finally able to rediscover her voice and see what she's really capable of, in terms of both leadership and acumen.

This is truly what female empowerment is about, and yet the execution misses the mark. Viewers need to buy into Kristen as a woman whose kindness and willingness to step aside to serve others is the problem, not her poor decision-making. But the fact that she prioritizes horny hookups over the magnitude of danger she and her associates are in makes it hard to truly root for or identify with her. And the movie's violence is gruesome at times, which is tonally challenging in a light comedy. Perhaps Hardwicke accomplished her goal: Her female mob film isn't quiet, polite, or deferential. Unfortunately, it's also not good.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in Mafia Mamma . Does it serve the story, or feel excessive?

How does the movie depict female relationships and interactions? How does this compare to other movies you've seen? How does entertainment influence the way that men treat women, how women treat other women, and how women see themselves?

Did you notice any stereotypes in the movie? Why are stereotypes problematic?

What is a "people pleaser"? How can we be kind and helpful to others while also advocating for ourselves?

Movie Details

• In theaters : April 6, 2023
• On DVD or streaming : May 2, 2023
• Cast : Toni Collette , Monica Bellucci , Giulio Corso
• Director : Catherine Hardwicke
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Female actors, Middle Eastern/North African writers
• Studio : Bleecker Street
• Genre : Comedy
• Run time : 101 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : bloody violence, sexual content and language
• Last updated : December 27, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

Married to the Mob

The Kitchen

The Godfather: Part II

Travel movies.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mafia Mamma’ on Showtime and Paramount+, a Deadly-Dumb Farce That Drags Toni Collette Down With It

Where to stream:.

• Mafia Mamma
• Toni Collette

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken’ on Netflix, an Animated Adventure That’s Generic In Spite of That Title

7 best scary movies to watch right now, is ‘ruby gillman, teenage kraken’ streaming on netflix, disney+ or paramount+, drew barrymore continues messy cooking segments while wearing onesies with toni collette: “i’m a rebel homemaker”.

Mafia Mamma (now on Showtime and Paramount+ , in addition to streaming on VOD services like Amazon Prime Video ) is one of those movie titles that’s like the KEEP OFF THE GRASS sign on your crotchety neighbor’s lawn: Everything says to stay away, but it also stirs up the morbid temptation to stomp all over it just to see what happens. Toni Collette, an absolutely endearing gem of an actor, headlines this comedy, playing a dumb American who learns she’s heir to an Italian “legitimate business.” Feel free to chant the titles Hereditary , The Sixth Sense and Knives Out as an incantation against lousy movies with contrived, cheeseball premises, just like this one, and as a reminder that every star takes a paycheck gig now and then. Mamma is directed by Catherine Hardwicke, who’s a long way from Lords of Dogtown , Thirteen and maybe even Twilight , but close to attaining notoriety for making one of 2023’s biggest misfires.   

MAFIA MAMMA : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: ITALY – THE CALABRIAN REGION: Blood fills the cracks in the piazza. Dead bodies everywhere. A pair of high heels walks through the carnage. The Don of the Balbano family is no more. A woman’s voice says, “This means war.” CUT TO: KRISTIN’S SUBURBAN AMERICAN KITCHEN. Brownies, fresh out of the oven. Kristin (Collette) is our protagonist. She cries as she drives a knife through the soft chocolatey goodness. Her phone rings, and she ignores it. Her son is leaving for college. You know the scene – three backpacks on the kid and a guitar in his hand and his mom is weeping and can’t stop hugging him and his friends are in the overstuffed car saying hey let’s go. Transitions. They’re tough. And it’s about to get tougher. Kristin’s job – she’s in pharma marketing and her boss is a sexist shitheel. As for her husband? “He’s in a band,” she says, and the reply is, “I’m sorry to hear that,” and that explains it all. She comes home one day and finds the manchild shtoinking a young guidance counselor. We’ve got ourselves a midlife crisis in full bloom here.

What about that phone call, you’re probably asking. I’m just getting there: It’s from the this-means-war woman, Bianca (Monica Bellucci). We know she’s In The Mob but Kristin doesn’t. Bianca represents Kristin’s estranged grandfather, calling with the news that he’s dead and Kristin has to fly to Italy right now to settle the estate. Well, shit. Kristin resists at first, because why would she want to leave the miserable rut she’s in with the empty nest and turdy husband and crappo job? She’s in a self-defense class that involves yelling CROTCH! EYE! CROTCH! EYE! repeatedly while punching a punching bag, and her spunky bestie Jenny (Sophia Nomvete) convinces her that a trip to Italy is the perfect opportunity for Kristin to get her “eat-pray-f—” on, and before you know it, the whole class is yelling EAT! PRAY! F—! EAT! PRAY! F—! repeatedly while punching a punching bag. “Louder!” Jenny bellows. “From the vagina!”

So Kristin lands in Italy, a naif just waiting to find herself in an untenable situation that, inevitably in movies like this, our protagonist finds increasingly tenable because there’s a lot more to her than being a ditzy chattering suburban American doofus. Right off the plane, she’s charmed by handsome younger fella Lorenzo (Giulio Corso), who makes pasta, because in Italy, one is employed either in the wine business, the pasta business, or the drugs-guns-and-stolen-goods business. Then she’s whisked off to her grandfather’s estate, where she looks around at all the heavily armed and tattooed thugs and gets a load of the fancy digs and actually thinks the guy was a vintner. Her grandfather’s funeral quickly erupts into a TOTALLY HILARIOUS shootout, and the gig’s up: Organized crime is going on around here, boy howdy! And hey guess what, Bianca informs Kristin that she, being the only living heir, is now head of the Balbano family, and her first task as Donna Balbano is to negotiate a ceasefire before the gang war gets out of hand. So Kristin finds a restaurant with to-die-for gnocchi on Trip Advisor and sets up the meeting. Sounds foolproof! And of course, before you know it, Kristin is grabbing her stiletto heel and Single White Female -ing a would-be assassin right in the CROTCH! EYE! CROTCH! EYE! Which is too bad, because she was hoping to do the EAT! PRAY! F—! stuff first.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Mafia Mamma has all the broad-comedy strokes of 25-to-40-year-old moronic Hollywood crud – think the mafia spoofery of Analyze This crossed with the fish-out-of-water junk of, I dunno, Crocodile Dundee or something. Oh, and the title card shamelessly rips off Quentin Tarantino.

Performance Worth Watching: Dim the lights, light some candles and repeat: Hereditary , The Sixth Sense , Knives Out. Hereditary , The Sixth Sense , Knives Out. Hereditary , The Sixth Sense , Knives Out. Hereditary , The Sixth Sense , Knives Out. (Feel free to throw in Nightmare Alley , Muriel’s Wedding or I’m Thinking of Ending Things to bolster your necromantic hoodoo.)

Memorable Dialogue: Collette is asked to deliver the following line with gusto, and it’s a prime example of the putrescent dialogue this movie thinks is funny: “Your pasta… it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever had in my mouth.”

Sex and Skin: Nothing beyond a little light foreplay.

Our Take: Mafia Mamma makes fingernails on a chalkboard sound like Barry White. When it’s not inundating us with moldy comedy, it’s filling the screen with enough gore to nip at the heels of The Evil Dead . I think buying Kristin’s well-worn doormat-no-more character arc within the Cosa-Nostra-via-Betty-Crocker scenario requires accepting the film as satire – although satire needs to be razor-sharp to be effective, and this movie is dull, desperate mush, as tasteless as it is pointless. 

The film’s biggest problem? There’s no character for Collette to play, so she fills the space with exuberant overcompensation, and Hardwicke never tells her to chill. Kristin is a bundle of affectations given a pile of double-entendres to recite. She chatters and blabbers endlessly, annoying everyone in earshot, from impatient mobsters to cringing movie-watchers, utterly clueless that her behavior might get her killed by the former, or send the latter screaming from the room. Which isn’t to say Collette’s performance is miscalculated. No, it’s pitch-perfect with the tone of the movie as a whole, whether Kristin’s telling anyone who’ll listen that she hasn’t had sex in three years, or standing by while her mafioso bodyguards dismember a body in the bathtub. The juxtaposition of banality and extreme violence is supposed to be humorous, but it’s merely shrill and miscalculated, an attempt at farce that’s farcical in itself. 

Our Call: Mafia Mamma stinks. Don’t sit there and watch Collette’s goodwill erode in front of your very eyes. SKIP IT, and skip it good.  

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Review: In ‘Mafia Mamma,’ murder by stilettos and by cliche

This image released by Bleecker Street shows Toni Collette, left, and Monica Bellucci in a scene from “Mafia Mamma.” (Fabrizio Di Giulio/Bleecker Street via AP)

This image released by Bleecker Street shows Toni Collette, left, and Giulio Corso in a scene from “Mafia Mamma.” (Fabrizio Di Giulio/Bleecker Street via AP)

This image released by Bleecker Street shows Monica Bellucci in a scene from “Mafia Mamma.” (Fabrizio Di Giulio/Bleecker Street via AP)

This image released by Bleecker Street shows Toni Collette, left, Sophia Nomvete and Alfonso Perugini, seated right, in a scene from “Mafia Mamma.” (Bleecker Street via AP)

This image released by Bleecker Street shows Toni Collette in a scene from “Mafia Mamma.” (Cristina Di Paolo Antonio/Bleecker Street via AP)

This image released by Bleecker Street shows Toni Collette, left, and Sophia Nomvete in a scene from “Mafia Mamma.” (Bleecker Street via AP)

This image released by Bleecker Street shows Toni Collette in a scene from “Mafia Mamma.” (Bleecker Street via AP)

This image released by Bleecker Street shows Toni Collette, left, and Giulio Corso in a scene from “Mafia Mamma.” (Bleecker Street via AP)

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At first, when suburban mom Kristin gets the mysterious call to head to Italy to settle the affairs of a dead relative, she protests she’s too busy. Then she realizes there’s not much keeping her: Her son is off to college, her job is dead-end, and her husband? He’s cheating with the school guidance counselor.

So why not treat herself to a me-focused trip, a la Julia Roberts? Maybe an “Eat, Pray, Love” trip, muses Kristin (Toni Collette), to which her friend (Sophie Nomvete) replies that what she really needs, bluntly, is to “Eat, Pray, $%&$.”

Soon that’s the slogan for her trip. It also would a great alternative title for “Mafia Mamma,” if they could get away with it. And really, they try to get away with most everything else.

That includes some cringe-worthy slapstick, some Tarantino-level violence, and also every Italian stereotype you can imagine (Grape-stomping? Check. Gelato, gnocchi and cannoli? Check. Speaking of cannoli: “The Godfather?” Check. Stanley Tucci’s food show? Check!) Some of this is to be expected, but “Mafia Mamma,” directed by Catherine Hardwicke, is over-saturated with shtick. And in a script which seeks to empower its protagonist by having her don a tight dress and commit murder with a stiletto heel to the groin (and eyeball), the goriest death is by cliché. Nobody escapes it.

Not even the wonderfully versatile Collette, who does yeoman’s work selling the increasingly repetitive plot developments, especially in the latter half, and maintaining sympathy for her character, who’s such a wide-eyed fish out of water, she’s never even seen “The Godfather” (a running joke, which like many jokes here is funny the first time).

The opening scenes are promising. We begin with always-welcome Monica Bellucci, as hardened consiglieri Bianca, surveying a crime scene full of dead bodies, including her boss Giuseppe Balbano, and declaring: “This is war.” Soon, Kristin gets Bianca’s call about grandad, whom she never knew. Kristin grew up in America and always assumed grandad was a vintner (and Tony Soprano was in waste management...).

Soon Kristin arrives in Rome, ready to eat, pray and you-know-what. (After all, her husband’s you-know-whatting with the guidance counselor, who has one of the film’s funnier lines when she says, caught in the act: “I want you to know I’m a feminist!”) It seems like the you-know-what is about to happen quickly for Kristin too, because an impossibly handsome guy just happens to show up at the airport and take her number.

At the funeral, Kristin narrowly escapes death when the procession itself is attacked by the rival family (a cascade of oranges running down the cobblestoned street is a clever “Godfather” reference, until the joke gets tired). At the family home, she’s shown a video message designating her as the successor. She tries to flee, but Bianca tells her she can’t run from her destiny.

And so the film chronicles her making peace with that destiny, even if peace means severing a few eyeballs from their sockets along the way.

Not that Kristin becomes evil or anything. Most of her bad deeds are done by accident or in self-defense. But the worst deed of all is that the movie can’t decide what it wants her, or itself, to be. It’s not fully slapstick comedy — wine-stomping scenes aside — and hardly a serious crime saga.

Most of all, it seems to want to tell a story of female empowerment; at one point Kristin is reminded to never let a man dictate who she can be or what she can do. Nice message, but it’s muddled. Who exactly is dictating? Surely not her husband, a caricature of a doofus.

And so, despite some satisfying moments, by the increasingly cringe-worthy last third of the movie you’re just annoyed that it seems to want to cover all bases — to have its, er, cannoli and eat it, too. Maybe Kristin should just eat, pray, you-know-what, and head on home.

“Mafia Mamma,” a Bleecker Street release, has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America “for bloody violence, sexual content and language.” Running time: 101 minutes. Two stars out of four.

MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

MAFIA MAMMA – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

The game-for-anything Toni Collette inherits a mafia clan in Mafia Mamma , an uneven comedy where the jokes and the tone are as scattershot as some characters’ aim.

Collette ( The Power ) plays Kristin, a suburban mom and pitchwoman for pharmaceutical products whose sexist boss prefers marketing erectile dysfunction products than hair treatments for cancer patients. She’s dealing with other troubles at home, including a cheating husband, when the glamorous Bianca (Monica Bellucci, Dry ), phones from Italy. Kristin’s grandfather has died, and as his only grandchild, she must settle his affairs.

Kristin jets off determined to turn the trip into her own version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s popular memoir Eat Pray Love , a book name-checked several times throughout the film. She’s soon distressed to learn that her grandfather’s dying wish was that she take over the family business—not his vineyard, which is a front, but the mafia stuff.

The script by Amanda Sthers ( Promises ), J. Michael Feldman ( Kevin from Work ), and Debbie Jhoon ( Not Dead Yet ) relishes Kristin’s fish-out-of-water status, but Mafia Mamma often isn’t sure what to do with her. Bianca, the family’s consigliere, explains that it’s better for the inexperienced Kristin to handle negotiations with a warring crime family instead of the hotheaded Fabrizio (Eduardo Scarpetta, My Brilliant Friend ), another blood relative. But Kristin seems in way over her head.

Instead, she proposes some legitimate business ventures with the mob money, which take off swiftly in the film’s fuzzy time frame. She also has a knack for defending herself against other mafia types trying to kill her, thanks to krav maga classes back home and her own dumb luck.

In the meantime, the “love” or at least lust part of her sojourn takes off after she meets Lorenzo (Giulio Corso, The Ignorant Angels ), a handsome cabbie who makes his own pasta and has a secret or two.

Director Catherine Hardwicke ( Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities ) frames the shootouts and the action so that they’re easy to follow, and Mafia Mamma gives Collette plenty of fashionable slow-motion entrances. Yet the film vacillates between cartoonish violence one moment, with both mafia families spitting at the mention of the other’s name, and gore the next, complete with a loose eyeball on the carpet and a stiletto in someone’s genitals.

There’s also no clear goal for Kristin’s character. As one might expect from the trailers, she finds strength and purpose as a mafia head, but in the film, this feels more like happenstance rather than her actions.

Collette and Bellucci have some nice scenes together, bonding as the only women in the Italian network, but viewers might wish for more of Kristin’s personality beyond bringing muffins to a meeting with mafia heavies. The Italian scenery, clothes, and food look scrumptious, but as a clever comedy, Mafia Mamma doesn’t quite click.

• ← AIR – Review by T.J. Callahan
• RARE OBJECTS – Review by Liz Braun →

Valerie Kalfrin

Valerie Kalfrin is an award-winning crime journalist turned freelance film writer whose work appears at RogerEbert.com, In Their Own League, Script, The Hollywood Reporter, and other outlets. Also a screenwriter and script consultant, she’s passionate about challenging stereotypes about gender and disability. Let’s tell better stories and tell stories better.

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Mafia Mamma Reviews

• 42   Metascore
• 1 hr 41 mins
• Drama, Comedy, Action & Adventure
• Watchlist Where to Watch

The comedy films centers on an American woman with an impossible mission: leading the mafia. After her grandfather passes away, Kristin receives a phone call notifying her that she inherited her grandfather's mafia empire. With the help of a trusted consigliere, Kristin soon discovers her flare for leading the family business.

Reviewed By: Rovi

Mafia Mamma is an action-comedy directed by Catherine Hardwicke that follows the story of Kristin Balbano. Played by Toni Collette, Kristen travels to Italy after her grandfather's death only to learn she must fill his shoes and be the next boss of the mafia. The film's self-awareness is one of its strengths as it pokes fun at itself and delivers what it promises - a fun and entertaining movie experience. However, the movie is riddled with clichés and noticeably lacks chemistry among most of its characters.The humor is light-hearted, and the film knows its audience, but it falls short of being a go-to comedy movie. While the upbeat music choice is excellent and perfectly complements the film's editing of a fast-paced action, the lack of believable relationships between most characters can be difficult to get through. Additionally, the movie's plot is predictable and follows a well-trodden path.However, Collette does deliver a fun performance that is infectious and should leave the audience smiling. Her performance is far from Oscar-worthy, but winning an award seems far from the point of her playing this role. In fact, viewers can tell she is having a blast playing the part. Her joy is infectious, which is one of the highlights of the film.Despite the obvious movie tropes, Mafia Mamma does also have some unexpected laugh-out-loud moments that feel natural and make the film enjoyable. The movie's message is clear - sometimes, we all need to take a break, kick back, and enjoy a good laugh. It's a great reminder that movies don't always have to be groundbreaking or major blockbusters. They can exist simply to entertain and provide a temporary escape from reality.The film doesn't make any bold statements or provide any significant societal commentary. Instead, it serves as a reminder to take a step back and enjoy the simple things in life. In a world that is experiencing so much uncertainty and stress, Mafia Mamma is a fine movie to watch with friends or family. It's likely to put a smile on audiences' faces, leaving the viewer feeling happy and relaxed. To put simply, Mafia Mamma is not a perfect film, but for what it is, it isn't awful. The movie's strengths lie in its self-awareness, unexpected humor, and Toni Collette's infectious performance. However, the movie's predictability, lack of chemistry among characters, and clichés hold it back from being anything but a minor blip in film history, if that. For those looking for a simple and enjoyable escape, though, Mafia Mamma might be worth a watch.

‘Mafia Mamma’ a daring, charming take on…

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‘mafia mamma’ a daring, charming take on woman’s midlife crisis | movie review.

This unusual new ethos of empowerment is the guiding theory behind Catherine Hardwicke’s crime comedy/feminist manifesto “Mafia Mamma,” starring Toni Collette as Kristin, a harried American mom and marketing exec who discovers her own power after she ascends to the top of an Italian crime family. Aretha Franklin sang a girl-power anthem about “R-E-S-P-E-C-T,” but what Kristin finds in Rome is a little “rispetto,” something she was sorely lacking in her previous life.

Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2006 memoir “Eat, Pray, Love” and its subsequent film adaptation starring Julia Roberts looms large in “Mafia Mamma,” as Kristin and her best friend, Jenny (Sophia Nomvete), fantasize about escaping to a land of gelato, pasta and Italian hunks after Kristin walks in on her dirtbag man-child husband Paul (Tim Daish) mid-coitus with the school guidance counselor.

The pair of pals put a crude twist on the book title, but the imagined sensual pleasures remain the same, inspiring Kristin to make a last-minute trip to Italy for the funeral of her estranged grandfather, Giuseppe Balbano (Alessandro Bressanello).

After the funeral turns into a shootout in the cobblestone streets of a medieval Italian village, Kristin is shocked to discover that her grandfather, a vintner of terrible wines, was, in actuality, the Don of the Balbano crime family, and he has selected her as his replacement. A 40-something mom in sensible sneaks as a Mafia Donna? It’s a premise ripe for fish-out-of-water comedy, out of which Collette and Hardwicke wring every last drop.

Collette’s performance of a ditzy, flirty, overwhelmed, horny and generally clueless American woman is so perfectly embodied as to enter the realm of parody, but the script, by Amanda Sthers, J. Michael Feldman and Debbie Jhoon, never condescends its heroine, nor does it require her to change. Sure, she gets a glamorous Mafia makeover courtesy of her right-hand woman, Bianca (Monica Bellucci), but Kristin succeeds because of her incongruously feminine qualities, not in spite of them.

She enters into a traditionally patriarchal and violent system, with strict codes of conduct and respect. While she indeed ends up threatening, harming and killing her enemies, she does it her way — she doesn’t have to become more like a man to make it work. She taps into her pent-up female rage at her misogynistic co-workers on both continents to find the strength to fight back, stabbing a would-be assassin in the eyes and crotch with a stiletto in a highly symbolic attack on female objectification. More importantly, she leans into her whims and desires, transforming the Balbano crime family business into a matriarchy, producing fabulous wines and engaging in drug trafficking of the medicinal, not recreational, variety.

In return, her loyal soldiers teach her a thing or two about demanding respect, especially from her ex-husband. Paul, who turns up looking for her, flabbergasted by the powerful woman he sees before him, though still not granting her due.

Bianca also encourages Kristin not to throw away everything she’s built for a man, even if he is a pasta-making hunk named Lorenzo (Giulio Corso). (The tension between Kristin and Bianca even suggests a Sapphic subtext, which does fall in line with “Eat, Pray, Love” author Gilbert’s own personal post-Italy journey).

This high-concept romp demands an over-the-top and facile narrative, and some of the bits are a bit hackneyed, but “Mafia Mamma” is much more wacky, funny and violent than the too-tame trailers would have you believe.

Collette goes for broke in her performance, and Hardwicke juggles the tone, style and genre play with ease, smuggling in a surprisingly radical message about an overtaxed middle-aged woman finding her bliss and earning the dignity she deserves through the traditional customs of her crime family.

In this daring — and utterly charming — take on a woman’s midlife crisis, embracing the Mafia lifestyle means having her gelato and eating it, too.

‘Mafia Mamma’

Where: Theaters.

When: April 14.

Rated: R for bloody violence, sexual content and language.

Runtime: 1 hour, 41 minutes.

Stars (of four): 3.

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• DVD & Streaming

Mafia Mamma

• Action/Adventure , Comedy , Crime

Content Caution

In Theaters

• April 14, 2023
• Toni Collette as Kristin; Monica Bellucci as Bianca; Sophia Nomvete as Jenny; Eduardo Scarpetta as Fabrizio; Francesco Mastroianni as Aldo; Alfonso Perugini as Dante; Giulio Corso as Lorenzo; Dora Romano as Maria; Tim Daish as Paul; Jay Natelle as Hank; Tommy Rodger as Domenick; Alessandro Bressanello as Don Giuseppe Balbano

Home Release Date

• May 2, 2023
• Catherine Hardwick

Distributor

• Bleecker Street Media

Positive Elements   |   Spiritual Elements   |   Sexual & Romantic Content   |   Violent Content   |   Crude or Profane Language   |   Drug & Alcohol Content   |   Other Noteworthy Elements   | Conclusion

Movie Review

Kristin has always been about family.

Sure, that family has taken its shots as of late. Her beloved son, Dominick, is off to college in faraway Oregon. Her husband, Paul, is cheating on her. Still, what is Kristin if not a mother? If not a wife? If not a dutiful pharmaceutical marketer?

A … mob boss?

No. No, no, no. Kristin is definitely not a Mafia donna. She bakes muffins! She rescues bugs! Why, she’s never even seen The Godfather !

She doesn’t care who her grandfather was. She barely knew the man, after all. Is it any concern of hers that said grandfather, the notorious Don Giuseppe Balbano, was gunned down in the streets of Rome and left to chill on the pavement? Or that the bloodbath (which also killed a rival don) threatens to tear Italy’s underworld apart? Certainly not.

Why, Kristin was the most surprised person in the room when she was told that Don Giuseppe willed his criminal empire to her. (Well, maybe the second-most surprised person. Presumed heir Fabrizio was pretty shocked.) She’d flown to Italy simply to attend her grandpa’s funeral (even though she barely knew him), eat some pasta and perhaps have a meaningless fling while she decides what to do about her no-good, cheating spouse.

But Bianca, the late Giuseppe’s capable assistant, insists that only Kristin can bring peace to Italy’s warring crime families. Just one teensy meeting, Bianca promises, and Kristin can call it a day.

And finally, as Kristin and Bianca trample on grapes at the Balbano winery, Kristin agrees. Just one little meeting with one little crime boss. What could be the harm? That boss wouldn’t try to kill her or anything, would he?

Besides, it’s the least Kristin can do. She’s all about family.

Positive Elements

Kristin is a good person. She says so herself—again and again and again. And, indeed, several people laud her good qualities. She greets a waitress by name, for instance. She makes trail mix for her son. She compliments a woman on her bonsai tree. And we know, of course, that complimenting someone on a painstakingly pruned houseplant negates any number of felonies. It’s the law.

Spiritual Elements

Don Giuseppe’s funeral takes place in a Catholic church presided over by sevreal priests. And while the service is respected by the Balbano family’s most vicious rivals (the Romanos), the funeral procession afterward is not. (Gangsters later express a certain satisfaction that Giuseppe’s casket received countless bullets.)

People cross themselves frequently.

Sexual & Romantic Content

Kristin walks in on her husband, Paul, engaged in sex with a much younger woman. We see movement, and Paul is shirtless; but otherwise the couple seems mostly clothed. Kristin is horrified. When Paul tells Kristin that he has an illness—that he needs to have sex all the time—Kristin reminds him that they’ve not had sex for three years. “I mean with a new person,” Paul tells her.

Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us that Kristin’s not in the best mindset when she heads to Italy. Indeed, she goes to the country hoping to have her own affair (or affairs). She’s encouraged by her best friend, and the two (and others) twist the book title Eat, Pray, Love into a more sexually crass chant—one that is repeated throughout the movie.

Kristin meets a man at an airport whom she swoons over. They apparently have a sexual relationship that begins the next day (or so we hear). We don’t see them engaged in anything sexual, but we do see plenty of hazy romantic scenes between the two, and she does spend the night at his place. The two of them sleep on his couch; he’s shirtless, and she’s on top of him.

Kristin goes up to another man’s hotel room in the hope of having sex with him. We see both of them engaged in foreplay, but it goes no further than that. We learn later from one of the man’s other apparent lovers that he screams during lovemaking.

Bianca and Kristin don’t seem to have any attraction to each other, but in one scene Bianca does lay beside Kristin and put her leg over the top of Kristin before, ultimately, straddling the American.

The movie may suggest that a waitress is, in fact, trans. (The person in question speaks with a very manly voice.) A woman is attracted to a guy because of a bullet wound (and subsequent stitches) he received. A man puts Kristin’s finger in his mouth and moistens it, apparently to help slip a family ring on it.

Women sometimes wear cleavage-baring outfits. One man is seen with his pants down, showing his underwear. Jenny and Kristin have a crass conversation about how Kristin should have sex while in Italy. Fabrizio dismissively tells Kristin that she dresses like a “librarian,” and not a librarian from a porno. We hear some double entendres. Back home, Kristin’s workmates—all male—try to market the drugs using both sex and sexism. (We glimpse several pictures of swimsuit-wearing men and women, all young, riding jet skis.)

We hear references to body parts, masturbation, erectile dysfunction and a poisoned penis.

Violent Content

Kristin gets attacked by someone who intends to rape and kill her. But she fights back, slamming her shoe’s stiletto heel repeatedly into his crotch and, ultimately, into both eyes. She pushes the 3-to-4-inch heel deeply into the skull, killing her assailant. We see blood ooze out of one of the now-vacant eye sockets and the eye rolling along the floor. Later, we hear that bits of the man’s scrotum were discovered in those same sockets.

A man accidentally poisons himself and dies. Another man falls into a wine-mixing machine that uses a massive metal corkscrew: We hear some horrific noises, both from the man and machine, as the guy dies. Corpses litter a small street, most of the bodies lying in small pools of their own blood. (A woman kisses one of the dead men affectionately before walking through the mess.)

Body parts come off with disturbing alacrity. Often, the folks who wind up missing said parts are already dead. One corpse has his hand sawn off and placed on a silver platter. Another corpse is dismembered in a hotel bathtub. (We see blood on the walls and one henchman carries a disembodied foot.) But this is not always the case: The man killed in the winemaking machine is presumably chopped up as he dies, and one of his fingers is placed in a full bottle of rosé wine as a message. Someone has his fingers blasted off in a gun battle; we see the digits flying, and one appendage lodges in someone’s hair. We learn that someone lost a limb in a traffic accident years before—and see the artificial limb.

Several people are shot in various shootouts. (Some brag and show off their injuries afterward.) Other melees take place off camera, where we hear the report of guns but don’t see any actual gunfire. Kristin’s bodyguards offer to dispatch her husband for her: She seems to consider it. Kristin and Jenny take a self-defense course, and the two spar. (The course is limited to women, and they’re encouraged to go for the crotch and eyes.) Someone slaps Kristin across the face. We hear about various Mafia hits.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear more than 45 uses of the f-word and nearly a dozen of the s-word. We also hear a mob of other profanities, including “a–,” “b–ch,” “b–tard,” “d–n,” “h—” and variations of  “d-ck.” We also hear some Italian crudities. God’s name is misused more than 25 times (twice paired with “d–n”), and Jesus’ name is abused once.

Drug & Alcohol Content

Kristin is first told that her crime-boss grandfather was merely a vintner. The quality of wine proves, however, that his wine business was only a front. Kristin works hard for months to improve the wine’s quality; we see her and others engaged in several tastings.

A man encourages Kristin to drink the Italian liqueur limoncello as part of foreplay. Kristin and others drink wine often at dinner, and she guzzles a huge glass of wine to get over a shock.

Someone smokes a cigarette. We hear that the Balbano crime family deals drugs. Legitimate pharmaceuticals come into play as well.

Other Noteworthy Elements

A panicked Kristin vomits all over her phone. She and others talk about the need to urinate.

The Balbanos are involved not just with the drug trade, but  with counterfeiting and gambling, too. Kristin is bummed to learn that the family isn’t involved in anything that isn’t either illegal or immoral. Characters spit at the mention of rival families—and someone spits in someone else’s face as well. We hear a couple of references to flatulence.

Mafia Mamma poses as something of a feminist fantasy: An unappreciated wife and mother discovers the joys of organized crime and, in turn, discovers herself. Spearheaded by the versatile  Toni Collette, it feels a little like a Pink Panther flick—only from the other side of the criminal ledger. A nice, naïve woman becomes a crime boss and … outlandishly succeeds. It has a wacky slapstick vibe with it, which can make it feel curiously innocent at times.

But it’s not. Boy, it’s not.

We often say in this space some variation of, “Man, too bad about all the unnecessary content, because otherwise this might have been a worthwhile watch for families” or something like that. Well, I’m not sure if this would ever be a worthwhile watch—the plot feels just a little too stilted and thin for that—but the movie’s R-rated content doesn’t do Mafia Mamma any favors. Indeed, that content often feels wildly out of place, given the movie’s silly vibe.

Not sure if anyone’s ever been hankering for a rape scene played for laughs that culminates in a stiletto being jammed into someone’s skull. Or for a movie that presents both marriage and divorce as vaguely annoying inconveniences. Or so many f-words.

You could say that Mafia Mamma is an offer you might want to refuse.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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Mafia Mamma Ending Explained – who does Kristen appoint as the new Don of the Balbano crime family?

We discuss the ending of the 2023 film Mafia Mamma which will contain spoilers.

Mafia Mamma follows a 40-year-old mother, Kristen, who is about to run face-first into empty nest syndrome. Her son, Domenick, has left.

To make matters worse, she finds out that her husband, Paul, has been on cheating on her. Luckily, she is invited out to Italy by a woman named Bianca.

Why? Her grandfather, who she had never met, passed away. After talking to her best friend, Jenn, she decides to go and have an Eat Pray Love moment after the funeral.

Mafia Mamma Ending Explained

Who is kristen’s grandfather.

Kristen’s grandfather was a mafia Don and head of the Balbano crime family. Kristen was born in Italy and moved away as a small child with her mother.

She grew up fatherless because her dad was murdered and was second in command in the Balbano family tree. A rival family, the Romanos, killed him. Don Guiseppe never contacted her to protect her.

Who is now the head of the Balbano crime family?

Kristen was made the head of the Balbano crime family. This was Don Guiseppe’s final wish. The problem is this enrages Fabrizio, who thought he would take over as head of the family. This leaves Kristen in a compromising position where she needs two bodyguards twenty-four hours a day. Why? At the funeral, an assassin tried to shoot her and other mourners.

When Bianca gives her instructions to negotiate with the head of the Romano family, he tries to poison her. Fortunately for Kristen, she inadvertently switched the limoncello she was given. He drank it without realizing it. The Romanos even sent an experienced assassin to kill her as well. Kristen, though, manages to stab him with her heels and takes his eyes out for added measure.

Why is Kristen not convicted at trial?

Kristen was not convicted at trial because the Pubblico Ministero did not have enough evidence to convict her. Initially, Kristen was arrested after a meeting between the Romanos and the Balbanos, led by Mammone. Kristen has been legitimizing her family’s business with wine sales and left much of the illegal activities to her rivals.

However, Kristen’s family has most politicians and authorities in their pockets. They want the Balbanos to pay a percentage of their losses. That’s when the police raid the meeting. Surprisingly Kristen’s love interest, Lorenzo, wooed her while undercover. Her friend Jenny, who is a lawyer, flew out and pointed out this glaring entrapment. Along with too much evidence based on hearsay, Kristen was cleared of all charges.

How does Fabrizio die?

Fabrizio dies when Kristen drops him into an industrial-sized Destemmer. (This machine separates grapes from stems, splits them open to obtain the juice, and then ferments it). This was after he attempted a takeover of the Balbano crime family, including killing Bianca. Fabrizio later takes hostages. Those are her cheating husband, Paul, and her son Domenick.

We think Fabrizio killed Bianca, but she shows up to protect Kristen and has protective armor that stops the bullet. Kristen tells Bianca to take her family to safety. While fighting Fabrizio, she pushes him through a rusty guard rail. While he is hanging above the Destemmer, Kristen grabs his arm to save him. He refuses to apologize or respect her, so they struggle. Kristen is afraid she may be pulled over, but his hand slips. This is when he falls to his death.

Who does Kristen appoint as the new Don of the Balbano crime family?

Kristen appoints Bianca as the new Don of the Balbano crime family. Kristen stays and manages the legitimate business side of her family. This is perfect for her because she has experience in pharmaceutical marketing and sales. Paul wants to live in the villa with her, but Kristen kicks him out. Kristen wishes her son good luck and tells him to call her as he leaves for the airport.

What did you think of the ending of the 2023 film Mafia Mamma? Comment below.

Article by Marc Miller

Marc Miller (also known as M.N. Miller) joined Ready Steady Cut in April 2018 as a Film and TV Critic, publishing over 1,600 articles on the website. Since a young age, Marc dreamed of becoming a legitimate critic and having that famous “Rotten Tomato” approved status – in 2023, he achieved that status.

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Mafia wars review: tom welling is a long way from kansas in this tired, lazy action thriller.

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Terrifier 3 Review: Gruesome Franchise Entry Spends Way Too Much Time On The Wrong Character

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Mafia Wars is an action thriller that loses momentum in the third act, which really drags the entire thriller aspect through the mud. Starring Tom Welling, who previously starred as Clark Kent in the popular series Smallville , Mafia Wars is a very different role. While he may add a certain level of star quality, it is not enough to redeem the rest of the movie from an underdeveloped script, poor pacing, and a supporting cast that was, by and large, mediocre.

The movie kicks off with Tom Welling's character , Terry, being bailed out of prison early after getting into a brawl to protect his cellmate. As it turns out, the benefactor who offers Terry freedom is a cop who wants to use him as an undercover agent to help bust a huge drug operation in Rome. Why? Not so clear. But at least Terry is big and intimidating. Then, the rest of the movie sees him infiltrate the mafia, while they try to weed out a whole host of other plants, as things get increasingly absurd.

Mafia Wars Stumbles To The Finish Line

The biggest problem with Mafia Wars has to be the pacing. There is almost no excuse for the movie's story to be completely underdeveloped, weak, and poorly planned. This is one of the few aspects where an indie movie could be expected to outshine the bigger releases, but it requires some love and care from the creatives involved. Instead, it feels as though Mafia Wars is action first and any thought for the plot and premise comes last.

There is almost no excuse for the movie's story to be completely underdeveloped, weak, and poorly planned.

The early sections of the movie are riddled with inconsistencies and elements that don't make sense. However, the latter half tries to amp up the tension and action, but then it makes weird cuts and jumps that completely cut the tension and slow down the pace. This wouldn't be so offensive if this wasn't actually the point in the movie where things start to get interesting. Instead, it becomes the most stiff and awkward third act as the story leaps from one moment to the next with black screen transitions.

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This all adds up to a movie that kills its own momentum, is predictable, full of tired tropey dialogue, and lacks action or thrills. Welling does well with the script he's been given, but even here, his years of talent and experience see him used as little more than a burly hero whose motives to take on a dangerous job appear to have been added in as an afterthought. All that said, Mafia Wars is not completely devoid of any redeeming qualities.

Mafia Wars Does Have One Bright Spot

Of the entire cast, the most interesting and engaging actor to appear onscreen is Cam Gigandet. Gigandet has had some roles in big Hollywood productions, but playing the unpredictable villain Griff sees the actor stand out in a whole new way. The delivery of his lines, the personality of his character, and the enthusiasm he brings to the role make every moment where he's onscreen some of the best scenes in the movie.

The most interesting and engaging actor to appear on-screen is Cam Gigandet.

However, despite Gigandet's standout performance, it isn't enough to save the rest of the movie. Had the script been refined and improved, the cast given more direction — specifically, Tom Welling's character having a more interesting personality — or any degree of attention paid to improving the narrative, it could have been something. Instead, the finished product is undercooked and devoid of passion. Mafia Wars is not a movie that is worth your time, and unfortunately, it lacks the substance to even be considered a so bad it's good movie.

Mafia Wars is now available on digital and on demand. The film is 90 minutes long and not rated.

Recently paroled felon Terry Jacobs is tasked with going undercover to infiltrate and bring down Griff, the leader of Italy's most notorious mob syndicate.

• Cam Gigandet delivers a stand out performance as the villain.
• The third act is so crowded and destroys the momentum.
• The script could have used at least a few more passes.
• The core premise of the movie is flawed.