"Sicilian Ghost Story" directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza are downplaying the returns on their third feature, a talky cat-and-mouse film inspired by the search for real mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.

While undoubtedly a crucial aspect of many of the most dramatic events in human history, letter writing is not the most cinematic of activities. And that, alas, is proven once again in Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza's "Sicilian Letters," a heavily fictionalized version of a true Mafia story that sets up a battle of wits between a ruthless mob boss and the family friend who works with the authorities to bring him down, but struggles to maintain any momentum when the duel is merely a case of letters-at-morning.

Elio Germano plays Matteo, a character based on the notorious Sicilian mafioso Matteo Messina Denaro, who was the subject of a 30-year manhunt that ended in 2023 when he was finally captured. Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty,” “Loro”) plays the fictional character Catello Polumbo, whose correspondence with Matteo brings the authorities closer than ever to his capture. As the film opens, Catello, a well-read, cultured ex-mayor referred to by everyone as professore, is released from prison after serving six years for unspecified crimes, none of which can be as serious as the tonsorial offenses committed against Servillo here. Sporting a majestically unflattering adult paint job smeared into a slick, sloppy comb-over, Catello cuts a vaguely ridiculous figure, which enhances the film’s comedic credentials but detracts from its dramatic heft.

Catello discovers that his prickly wife Elvira (Betti Pedrazzi) has fallen on hard times in his absence, and his newly pregnant daughter is engaged to the bumbling but helpful Pino (Giuseppe Tantino), whose puppyish response to Catello’s obvious disdain is to throw his arms around the older man and call him “Daddy.” Pino isn’t the only one with father problems. Far away, as he runs his murderous operations from a hideout in the home of an attractive widow, Lucia (Barbora Bobulova), Matteo is haunted by memories of his own recently deceased mob boss father.