''Mambo Italiano'' is a 2003 Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Émile Gaudreault. The screenplay was written by Gaudreault and Steve Galluccio, based on Galluccio's theatrical play by the same name. Both the play and the film are based on Galluccio's own life and experiences.

Plot

Angelo Barberini is the oddball son of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

immigrants Gino and Maria, who inadvertently ended up in Canada rather than the United States. Angelo shocks his parents – and his sister, Anna – by moving out on his own without getting married, and, shortly after that, shocks them further still when he reveals he is

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

. But his boyfriend (and childhood best friend), policeman Nino Paventi, isn't as ready to come out of the

closet A closet (especially in North American usage) is an enclosed space, with a door, used for storage, particularly that of clothes. ''Fitted closets'' are built into the walls of the house so that they take up no apparent space in the room. Closet ...

– especially not to his busybody Sicilian mother, Lina.

Cast

Luke Kirby Luke Farrell Kirby (born June 29, 1978) is a Canadian actor. In 2019, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for his guest role as Lenny Bruce on the television series ''The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel''. Early life Kirby was born in Hamilton, Ontario, to ...

as Angelo Barberini *

Claudia Ferri Claudia Ferri is a Canadian actress. She is most noted for her performance as Anna Barberini in the film '' Mambo Italiano'', for which she was a Jutra Award nominee for Best Supporting Actress at the 6th Jutra Awards in 2004, and her starring ro ...

as Anna Barberini * Peter Miller as Nino Paventi *

Paul Sorvino Paul Anthony Sorvino (, ; April 13, 1939 – July 25, 2022) was an American actor. He often portrayed authority figures on both the criminal and the law enforcement sides of the law. Sorvino was particularly known for his roles as Lucchese cri ...

as Gino Barberini *

Ginette Reno Ginette Reno (born Ginette Raynault; 28 April 1946) is a Canadian author, composer, singer, and actress. She has received nominations for the Genie and Gemini Awards and is a multi-recipient of the Juno Award. She is a gold and platinum selli ...

as Maria Barberini * Mary Walsh as Lina Paventi *

Sophie Lorain Sophie Lorain (born Sophie-Hélène Lorain; 20 November 1957) is a French-Canadian actress, director and producer. She is known for having played Anne Fortier in the highly rated television series '' Fortier'' that first aired in Quebec, Can ...

as Pina Lunetti * Tim Post as Peter * Tara Nicodemo as Yolanda/Woman in Airplane/Jolene * Pierrette Robitaille as Rosetta *

Dino Tavarone Dino Tavarone (born December 28, 1942) is an Italian-Canadian actor most prominent in the Cinema of Quebec.Brendan Kelly"Mon ami Dino: Q&A with actor Dino Tavarone" ''Montreal Gazette'', August 4, 2016. He is most noted for his role as mafia boss G ...

as Giorgio *

Mark Camacho Mark Camacho (born April 12, 1964) is a Canadian film, television and voice actor. Career He has starred in live-action films, but is best known for his voice acting roles, such as Oliver Frensky in ''Arthur'', Lyle in '' Animal Crackers'', Dad ...

as Johnny Christofaro * Michel Perron as Father Carmignani * Lou Vani as Marco * Diane Lavallée as Mélanie

Production

Mambo Italiano was based on a play by Steve Galluccio, which was written based on his own real-life experiences growing up in an immigrant community in Montreal.

Reception

''Mambo Italiano'' received mixed to negative reviews, currently holding a 32% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

; the consensus states: "A broad, shrill comedy that plays like a sitcom." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a 41/100 rating, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Scott Brown from

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

wrote "This is feel-good filmmaking, to be sure, but the culture clash here is more than a meaningless vehicle for fizzy wish fulfillment. The not-unpleasant result is hearty Italian fare with the half-life of Chinese takeout." Janice Page from the ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' wrote "No sophisticated dance, but it moves about with an open heart. And hey, it’s at least as funny as that Greek thing." ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...

'' Roger Ebert gave the film a modest two stars and refers to the film "in convenience" as "''My Big Fat Gay Wedding''".

Follow-up

Galluccio went on to create the

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

'' Ciao Bella'', which explored similar themes of culture clash that are examined in this film and the play it was based upon. Claudia Ferri, who played Angelo's sister Anna in ''Mambo Italiano'', played the lead role in ''Ciao Bella''.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mambo Italiano (Film) 2003 films 2003 comedy-drama films Canadian comedy-drama films Canadian LGBT-related films English-language Canadian films 2000s English-language films Italian-language Canadian films 2000s French-language films Films directed by Émile Gaudreault Films set in Montreal Films shot in Montreal Canadian independent films LGBT-related comedy-drama films 2003 independent films 2003 LGBT-related films 2003 comedy films 2003 drama films Canadian films based on plays French-language Canadian films 2000s Canadian films 2003 multilingual films Canadian multilingual films