I Love Italian Everything

Based on a true story, Angela, starring Donatella Finocchiaro (my new female crush) made me feel guilty about something and I’m still trying to figure out what.

I’ve never cheated on my husband, as Angela did, so it isn’t that. Angela, the wife of a much older Sicilian mobster takes up with her husband’s employee (I thought you “slept with the fishes” for that kind of thing, but Angela survives it).

I’ve never run a business that was a front for drug trafficking, as Angela did – so it can’t be that. The shoe boxes in Angela’s store contained little “bonuses” , heroin, with the fine Italian leather, and she ran the place with her teenage daughter waiting on customers.

I’ve never been in jail, on trial for a felony, or been wiretapped by the police (at least not that I know of), so why did I feel the connection to Angela?

Maybe it’s because of the way “Angela” was filmed, the cameras close to the characters, following their every move and catching every nibble of a fingernail and dart of the eye. Maybe it’s because the characters talked like real people, almost as if it had not been scripted at all. Or maybe it’s just because Angela was made to seem not bad or good or right or wrong; interesting, since she was, after all, selling drugs and sleeping with with a man who was not her husband.

Americans love a good Mafia story, and if you liked The Sopranos,  you’ll love watching Angela. making deliveries and collections, dividing up the drug in the baggies, giving the cops the slip, all just part of a regular Mafia family workday.

I’m not saying I felt sorry for Angela, but I wasn’t in the mood to judge her. I think it’s harder to do that if a movie let’s you get to know a character this well.