Review   Mobsters and Mormons   ***   Rated: PG for mild thematic elements, some language and violence   Cast: Marc DeCarlo, Jeanette Puhich, Clayton Taylor, Scott Christopher   Writer/director: John E. Moyer   Family call: It's a fine family film.   Running time: 97 minutes   Opens Friday at: x

After the feds bust New Jersey mob thug Carmine Pasquale, he spills on his boss in court. Carmine breaks the code of silence in order to avoid the pen, but, courtesy of the witness protection program, he ends up somewhere even more stifling - Utah. Carmine, renamed George Cheeseman, can't find any good horse tracks, bars or coffee. His family's new neighborhood is filled with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who don't drink, gamble or caffeinate. Hence the premise of "Mobsters and Mormons," a lively olive oil and baptismal water sitcom. It's the first feature film directed by John E. Moyer, who has built a steady career writing light Mormon comedies, including "The Singles Ward" (2002), "The R.M." (2003) and "The Home Teachers" (2004). Laden with churchy inside jokes and thinly veiled preaching of church doctrine, each of those was specifically made by and for Mormons. "Mobsters and Mormons" is an admirable attempt at a crossover. It's the first of Moyer's cinematic efforts that takes no knowledge of church culture to appreciate. The story still has more to offer to members of the church than hardcore mob-tale fans weaned on "GoodFellas" and "The Sopranos," but less so than you'd think. It's not a story of terrible sinners seeing the light through godly immersion and redeeming themselves through faith, but of people of very different cultures and values learning to live with one another. Moyer sets up sprawling plotlines that meander around and punch in for regular laughs, including a romance between teenage Vincent Pasquale (Clayton Taylor) and a Mormon girl who's frustrated with the town's stagnancy. Carmine's wife, Gina (Jeanette Puhich), and her deepening involvement with churchwomen's activities draws Carmine's ire. Also lingering in the background is the mob's methodical retaliation for Carmine's transgression. Understandably, Moyer's depictions of Mormon family life are far more convincing than his insights into the Pasquale household. The Pasquales are walking Italian-mobster stereotypes, with no manners, decorum or knowledge of grammar. At least one Mormon character doesn't get off easy, either. Neighborhood gossipmonger Louise (Jan Broberg Felt) is painted as a borderline racist seclusionist who, if she didn't operate so passive-aggressively, would rile up a pitchfork-wielding mob to drive the non-practicing Catholics out of town. Much of the credit for the film's success should go to Mark DeCarlo, who plays Carmine as a cantankerous bigot who matches the surrounding niceness with resentment, continuously cracking off-color jokes; he likens the Mormons-Jehovah's Witnesses rivalry to that of the Bloods and the Crips . Carmine is a goodhearted but paranoid man who is weary of being assimilated. Some of his neighbors are goodhearted but paranoid folks who are afraid of getting whacked. "Mobsters and Mormons" finds meaningful comedy in the struggle to overcome preconceptions.