Mafia Mamma review: Toni Collette shines in a fish-out-of-water mob comedy
Looking for a mildly fun, occasionally funny 101-minute diversion? This lightweight comedy will have to do

Kristin Balbano Jordan’s life sucks, and the men in her life suck even worse. Her useless husband—with whom she’s not had sex in three long years—cheats on her. Her self-sufficient son is heading off to college. And at her pharmaceutical marketing/advertising job, Kristin’s male boss and male co-workers utterly ignore or dismiss every suggestion she makes. Kristin—a self-doubting but sunny woman who always puts the needs of others above her own—is at her wit’s end when fate intervenes.
Her estranged grandfather, Giuseppe Balbano, has died and she must fly to Italy immediately to run the family business. Thinking of it as nothing more than a vacation escape, during which she’ll indulge in nothing but wine, sex, pasta, and delicious desserts, Kristin hops on a plane. Her mantra for the trip? “Eat. Pray. Fuck.” Little does she realize that the family business involves far more than a vineyard and winery. Giuseppe was Don Balbano, which makes Kristin … the old man’s handpicked Dona Balbano.
From the moment Kristin touches down in Italy, people want her dead. This includes Giuseppe’s enemies and possibly some Balbano family members, too. And at first, we’re not quite sure about the motivations of Giuseppe’s formidable consiglieri, Bianca, who seems to take a bemused liking to the befuddled newcomer. Soon enough, Kristin finds her groove, as she comes to terms with the family’s enemies, transforms the winery (a front for the family’s real business) into something special, does some genuine good for people, unleashes her libido on a hunky pasta maker, and kills just enough people—accidentally, of course—to earn the respect and fear of everyone around her, including her Central Casting mafia bodyguards (Francesco Mastroianni and Alfonso Perugini).