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Canberra Today 15°/17° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

“Big Mama’s Boy” (PG) no stars

I’LL never know nor care how director Franco di Chiera and co-writer Frank Lotito brought their little one-gag Aussie movie to its end.

It’s their first feature debut after well-paid day jobs directing and producing TV documentaries. With TV, you can change channels or even switch off. I stuck with it for an hour then voted with my feet.

Lotito plays real-estate salesman Rocco (Frank), at 35 still living with his mother (Carmelina Di Guglielmo), who packs his lunch every day, spends the day ironing his shirts and makes his favourite lasagna for his evening meal. Can Rocco escape from her obsessive control and move out? Will he make a relationship with Katie (Holly Vallance) the busty, hot-shot, blonde new salesperson or the tall brunette second cousin whom Mamma arranges with her brother back in Sicily to escort to Melbourne to keep it in the family.

The film is full of brief sequences that, to its makers, might seem funny but are merely awkward. A mother with steel apron strings provides a worthwhile idea, but it needs a cleverer writer than Lotito to turn it into a screenplay with wit.

At Greater Union and Dendy

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Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

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