Entertainment

Mob teen snitches, film has glitches

Hell hath no fury like a woman whose father and brother have been slain by the Mafia. That sums up “The Sicilian Girl,” an Italian movie based on true events.

Teenager Rita lives in a small Sicilian village. Her dad is a mobster, but he has “family values,” which means he doesn’t want the mob to get into drug dealing. This doesn’t sit well with the local godfather, who hopes to make big bucks with drugs. Stung by the murders of her dad and brother, Rita does the unthinkable. She breaks the code of silence and squeals on the mob. She’s put into a witness-protection program, with a new name and a new apartment in Rome.

There’s more than enough material in that story to make a rousing mob movie, something along the lines of the recent “Gomorrah.” But Marco Amenta, who directed and cowrote “The Sicilian Girl,” isn’t up to the task. He takes an old-fashioned, stereotypical approach, lacking in passion.

Despite strong performances by Gerard Jugnot as the crime-busting prosecutor and Veronica D’Agostino as the adult Rita, “The Sicilian Girl” never lives up to its potential.

In Italian, with English subtitles. Running time: 110 minutes. Not rated (violence). At Film Forum, Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue.