88. Big Night

Big Night is a small movie with a huge heart, a modest film that deserved a far bigger audience than it drew during its initial release. Co-directed by actors Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott, it’s also a love letter to the craft of acting, centering on the loving-but-contentious relationship between two Italian-immigrant brothers Secondo (Tucci) and Primo (Tony Shalhoub). In the 1950s, the brothers are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy as they fight over how best to run their high-class restaurant, Paradise. Primo, the purist of the pair, despises the very idea of turning Paradise into a spaghetti-and-meatballs joint -- while the more practical Secondo understands that, unfortunately, the local non-Italianos just don’t get the brothers' authentic regional cooking.

When Pascal (Ian Holm), owner of a successful competing restaurant, offers to set the boys up with a visit from Louis Prima and his band, which will bring untold free publicity, it could be a godsend -- or, perhaps, a trick. As Secondo and Primo prepare for the Big Night, the film lazily explores various details of the brothers’ life – including Secondo’s romancing of both Pascal’s mistress, Gabriella (Isabella Rossellini) and his patient, frustrated girlfriend Phyllis (Minnie Driver). Big Night is the sort of great food movie, like Tampopo or Like Water for Chocolatee, that features dishes so vividly and prominently that they’re almost characters unto themselves. But it’s the people that make Big Night the gem that it is -- a sensual, loving, charming film about food and family. (Dawn Taylor)