DIRECTORS
Campbell
Scott
Stanley Tucci
SCREENWRITERS
Joseph
Tropiano
Stanley Tucci
PRODUCER
Jonathan Filley
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Ken Kelsch
MUSIC
Gary DeMichele
EDITOR
Suzy Elmiger
CAST
Tony Shalhoub (Primo)
Stanley Tucci (Secondo)
Minnie Driver (Phyllis)
Isabella Rossellini (Gabriella)
Liev Schreiber (Leo)
Ian Holm (Pascal)
Allison Janney (Ann)
Campbell Scott (Bob)
MPAA rating: R
Running
time: 107m
U.S. release: September 20, 1996
Video availability: VHS - DVD
Other Stanley
Tucci films
reviewed on this website:
- Joe
Gould's Secret
|
This
fall has been the worst movie season in recent memory; Hollywood
has been dropping one expensive, star-studded turd after another.
So I'm happy to see that Big Night, which has wowed critics
and tickled art-house audiences, is breaking into a wider release.
It has no stars, just fine actors. It has no gimmicks, just a
good story well told. We've reached the point where independent
films, which used to be artsy and inaccessible, are now reviving
the lost art of simplicity.
Stanley Tucci, a character actor whose brilliant work on last
season's Murder One reached too few viewers, wears four
hats in this labor of love: co-producer, co-writer (with cousin
Joseph Tropiano), co-director (with Campbell Scott, who has a
small role as a car dealer), and co-star -- with another unsung
actor, Tony Shalhoub of NBC's Wings. Having made money
for other people, Tucci was ready to make art for a change. His
movie reflects his own status as an artist in a commercial industry.
It's the late '50s, and Italian brothers Primo (Shalhoub) and
Secondo (Tucci) are trying to keep their small New Jersey restaurant,
The Paradise, from sinking into bankruptcy. Primo, the cook,
thinks of his work as art that must retain its integrity -- no
meatballs with his risotto, even if the customers want them.
Secondo, the manager, respects Primo's culinary genius but knows
it's killing their business.
Across the street is a loud, lurid joint named after its owner
Pascal (Ian Holm at his funniest), an effusive Italian who sells
American patrons their stereotypical idea of Italian dining.
"The rape of cuisine," Primo calls it. Shrewd business,
Secondo might call it. Pascal, who likes the brothers (though
Primo loathes him), offers them a last shot at success: He'll
ask Louis Prima, the popular singer, to dine at The Paradise.
Preparing for Prima's visit, the brothers go all out, inviting
friends and lovers to join them for what can only be decribed
as an orgy of food. Be prepared to hear many moans of pleasure
and pain at Big Night, which serves dish after dish that
looks orgasmically delicious. Be prepared to hit the aisle running
towards a restaurant after the movie, too. Local Italian eateries
should stock their kitchens accordingly.
The movie has many lively moments, but it also knows when to
sit still. There's a riveting final shot of Secondo and Primo
in the kitchen that lasts five minutes without a cut. Nothing
happens and everything happens. (Director of photography Ken
Kelsch, a master of nailed-down camerawork, did similar things
in Bad
Lieutenant.) And the actors-directors do fine work with
the cast: Minnie Driver is more vibrant here than she is in Sleepers,
and Isabella Rossellini loosens up and has fun.
Tucci and Shalhoub work beautifully together, expertly drawing
Primo and Secondo's fraternal tensions without resorting to clichés.
Big Night is a triumph for everyone involved, but especially
for Stanley Tucci. He's spent years serving the meatballs audiences
wanted. Now he has made an exquisite dish of risotto, and, best
of all, audiences are eating it up. |
