Hungry? You will be after seeing "Big Night," an independent film that revolves around the most delectable Italian feast most people may never eat.
This sumptuous movie takes its time in narrating the story of two immigrant brothers and their failing Italian restaurant named The Paradise.
Unfortunately, by the end, the audience will leave far more hungry than satisfied with the film.
"Big Night," like "Babette's Feast" and "Like Water for Chocolate," is a film that simmers its plot with plenty of food. But unlike those movies, this is about acting.
Directed by two of its actors and co-written by the lead actor, the film offers up serving after serving of fantastic acting.
The film was written by its star, Stanley Tucci, with his cousin Joseph Tropiano, and has already won the prestigious Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
The script was obviously a labor of love and even includes references to Tucci and Tropiano's Italian roots. Timpano, the main course of the climactic feast, is a dish originally created in Calabria, Italy, where Tucci and Tropiano's grandparents lived.
Primo (Tony Shalhoub) and Secundo (Stanley Tucci) Pilaggi are two brothers who have come to America from Italy with the dream of opening an Italian restaurant.
Primo does the cooking and Secundo is the maitre d'. Their jobs suit them, as Primo lives only to create the perfect meal, while Secundo wishes for financial success.
Unfortunately, the restaurant has been ignored by the uncultured denizens of New Jersey in the 1950s.
They seem to prefer another restaurant named Pascal's Grotto across the street. Pascal (Ian Holm), the owner, is the ultimate businessman, a man who is "anything I need to be at any time."
Pascal and his wife Gabriella (Isabella Rossellini) kowtow to the lowbrow public and serve spaghetti and meatballs with nightly entertainment.
When the bank decides to foreclose on the Pilaggi brothers, Secundo goes to Pascal for help. Pascal offers to invite famed jazz singer Louis Prima to the Paradise.
If the brothers can impress Prima, they should gain notoriety and customers.
Most of the film focuses on the big night and the brothers' preparations for their finest meal. Among those invited are the object of Primo's undisclosed passion, Ann (Allison Janney), Secundo's girlfriend Phyllis (Minnie Driver) and a bizarre Cadillac salesman played by co-director Campbell Scott.
The film centers the climactic events around the feast, which plays out the various dramas among the characters. Most interesting, though, is the conflict between the two brothers.
They have exceedingly different personalities, and yet are pulled together by the bonds of family. Their conflicting emotions toward each other make for excellent drama.
However, it is drama that "Big Night" lacks most of all. By the end of the movie, there is much to be learned about the characters.
Each one has a secret to tell or a problem he must confront. Yet there is no secret that will shock anyone, and there are so many characters with so many minor secrets that it is difficult to care about any one in particular.
In fact, as the movie nears its conclusion, the only things that will really matter are the brothers and the food. The rest of the characters have such brief time on screen that they become secondary to the struggling restaurateurs and their marvelous dishes.
However, the film does conclude with these very subjects in one of the most strangely moving scenes to have been filmed in a long while.
The final shot of the movie is a five-minute long scene in which the camera does not move or cut. It is an utterly and most unusually silent scene.
This scene, however, is riveting, and is itself enough to recommend the movie.
While the plot's weaknesses create a very slow-paced film, acting is what it is really all about.
The final, silent scene could not have been accomplished by lower-profile actors. Without marvelous acting, the whole movie would be about nothing but getting hungry.
Driver, best known for her starring role in "Circle of Friends," does a fine job here as Phyllis.
Even better is Janney's Ann, the woman secretly loved by Primo. Primo and Ann's scenes together are wonderful vignettes about the power of first attraction tempered with the shyness of innocence.
Holm gives a firecracker performance as the ultimate capitalist.
His Pascal is a man whose self-proclaimed philosophy is to "sink your teeth into the ass of life." His character could be very prone to wild stereotyping and overacting, but Holm keeps it all in check.
The true stars of this movie, though, are the brothers. Shalhoub from the television show "Wings" gives us Primo, the brother who cares only for simple truths.
Tucci, from television's "Murder One," however, gives the film's best performance as Secundo, a man torn between Old World values and the American Dream of riches, success and a Cadillac in the garage.
By the end of the movie, one will have forgiven most of the weak plot points, and ended up caring for these two brothers lost in a foreign land.
You may not leave the theater completely satisfied with the film, but you will leave knowing that you have done anything but waste your time.
But most of all, you will leave the theater very, very hungry.
Critic's tickets provided by the Nugget Theater.
