Mafia Mamma tells the classic story of an uptight and highly strung housewife who learns to let loose by being forced to step out of her comfort zone in another country. In this case, out of her comfort zone means taking over the family business as a mafia boss.
Toni Collette plays the role well, and manages well with the heavy amount of dialogue she has. Her character is fun and exactly what you'd expect coming into the film.
With a mostly Italian cast and setting, the film leans heavily into stereotypes and caricatures. Some of the characters were a bit silly and unnecessary and a lot of their dialogue was stupid and felt cheap.
The first half of the film is better than the second, and the final act was unrealistic and very cringeworthy.
Overall, It wasn't as predictable as I thought it would be, however there's a lot of things that were set up earlier in the film that were obviously going to teature later on, and they all did.
On a side note, there was a weird sexual chemistry/ tension between Monica Bellucci's character Bianca and Toni Collette's Kristin which doesn't get explained at all.
For me, this film would have been more appropriate to release on a streaming service instead of in theaters, but I don't think I was the target audience of this film. I'm sure middle aged women loved it!
