Mambo Italiano
''There is no fate worse than being gay and Italian,'' claims a young man in ''Mambo Italiano.'' He's wrong, of course. Some people would say a worse fate is sitting through endless jokes about being gay and Italian.
But that's just some people. Others, probably including the hordes of bachelorettes who keep ''Joey and Maria's Comedy Italian Wedding'' in business, will bust a gut over every accented vowel, teased hairdo, and roomful of mismatched wallpaper in writer-director Emile Gaudreault's cinematic ''Mambo.'' Not that there's anything wrong with that.
File ''Mambo Italiano'' under The Lighter Side of Italian Life, the one filled with accordions and spumoni and wisecracking gay help-line counselors. For all its cutting-edge ''Queer Eye for the Straight Guido'' aspirations, this ethnic family comedy adapted from Steve Galluccio's stage play is really just another collection of hammy two-dimensional snapshots that recall -- let's just get the comparison over with -- ''My Big Fat Greek Wedding.'' As with the Greeks, some of these snapshots are very funny, and some are very unfunny. Fortunately, all come with a sincere affection for nostalgia and heritage that makes them hard not to warm to over the long haul.
Set in Montreal's Little Italy, ''Mambo Italiano'' is centered on old-fashioned immigrant parents confronted with the news that their unmarried son, Angelo, is (Santa Maria!) moving out to live on his own at the tender age of 27. Also, he's gay. This sets up many ''Moonstruck''-style lines about ''the omosessuale'' and how a missed opportunity to play grade-school hockey maybe ''woulda make-a 'im normal.''
As Angelo's parents clutch their chests over his new live-in romance with childhood friend Nino, they predictably enter into a scheme with Nino's devious (Sicilian, it must be mentioned) mother in an effort to break up the couple. It's all meant to lead to statements about tolerance and dignity, delivered with a sitcom-ready touch by filmmaker Gaudreault (''Wedding Night'').
You already know each resolution here will be naively upbeat; what may impress you is that Gaudreault at least attempts to reach somewhere slightly beyond the obligatory slap that has come to define climactic Italian family gatherings.
Ginette Reno and Paul Sorvino play Angelo's parents, who are a cookie-cutter combination of generation-specific ignorance and budding enlightenment. Luke Kirby (''Halloween: Resurrection'' and the upcoming ''Shattered Glass'') is their adorable gay bambino, too earnest but with a surprisingly strong voice and sense of self for such an otherwise stock cast of characters. The scene-stealers are Mary Walsh as Nino's sexy Sicilian mama and Sophie Lorain as the vixen who's out to set Nino (Peter Miller) straight. They're deliciously over the top, and are used sparingly enough not to wear out their welcome.
That's true of this film in general, really: For as many groans as its cliches may induce, it remains likable by never pounding too hard on any one wrong note before it's on to something else that might make you smile. ''Mambo Italiano'' is no sophisticated dance, but it moves about with an open heart. And hey, it's at least as funny as that Greek thing.
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