Big Night

On the Jersey shore in the fifties, two Italian immigrant brothers run a restaurant. Primo is in the kitchen and will not compromise: if a customer asks for spaghetti alongside the risotto he comes out to argue about it. Secondo works the room and pays the debts. Their one chance of staying open is a big dinner for a famous musician who is said to be coming. The film is not interested in food. It is interested in the limit of compromise: Primo wants to make what is good, Secondo what sells, and the film grants both of them their case. The timpano, an enormous baked pasta, is that argument made solid, and its preparation is one of the longest passages in the film. The form is warm and patient: the restaurant, the kitchen, the shore. The pace is the pace of cooking. Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott co-directed, and Tucci wrote with Joseph Tropiano. The pair took the New York Film Critics Circle and Boston Society of Film Critics awards for Best New Director, and the film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Tucci plays Secondo, Tony Shalhoub plays Primo, with Minnie Driver, Ian Holm and Isabella Rossellini completing the cast. The ending is nearly silent: Secondo makes an omelette without a word, and the scene runs close to five minutes. Who it is for: viewers who like food films and stories about brothers. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for events. It is very slow, the plot is thin, and the big night does not deliver the climax you are led to expect.