'The Mafia Only Kills in Summer': Mob farce is murder

The Mafia Only Kills in Summer milks considerable comedy out of the real-life (and real-death) history of crime syndicates operating in Italy in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. A first film from Italian TV personality Pierfrancesco "Pif" Diliberto, this flashbacking farce is punctuated by reenactments of infamous mob hits, with bodies of prominent officials sprawled on sidewalks, slumped in cars, dead, dead, dead.

Pif (how he's billed in the film credits) teases laughs from these scenes of bloody retribution by weaving a jaunty coming-of-age yarn into the mix. As a boy, Arturo (Alex Bisconti) has two obsessions: Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, and the pretty new student, Flora, who joins his class. Mafia shootings dominate the TV news and newspaper headlines, and Arturo - as a kid, as a teenager, then as a gangly young man (played by Pif) - ingratiates himself with members of the "Addiopizzo" movement, businessmen and politicians who bravely, and sometimes fatally, defy the mob.

Set in sunny, teeming Palermo and offering a parade of cartoonish characters, most notably the vain, Francophilic talk show host Jean Pierre (Maurizio Marchetti), The Mafia Only Kills in Summer will resonate best with audiences familiar with the cultural and criminal traditions of southern Italy. Pif pops his eyes wide and blunders headlong from one misadventure into the next, his main objective being to win the heart of Flora (Cristiana Capotondi), all grown up and working as a press aide for a campaigning pol.

At the end of this likably goofy satire, Pif's Arturo takes his family on a tour of the plaques and monuments in city squares and along hilly Sicilian roads put up to commemorate the police, politicians, and private citizens who stood their ground against the gangster class.

The line between ha-ha funny and sorrowful reverence has been crossed - more deftly than you'd think.

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