Big Night
“Paradise!”
by Jonathan McDonald
There is something frightfully desperate about Big Night, something that puts the lie to the belief that anyone can make it big in America if he works hard and perseveres. As Stanley Tucci’s Secondo confesses to his rival-friend Pascal (Ian Holm), “I know in Italy, you work hard, and there is nothing. But here, you work hard, and up [you go].” Pascal agrees, “That is why we all come here. It’s the land of fucking opportunity, right?” Secondo has a problem: years ago he convinced his brother Primo (Tony Shalhoub) to come to America and open an Italian restaurant, but they turn out to be their own worst enemies. Primo is a perfectionist, and doesn’t believe in dumbing his cuisine down for customers who want spaghetti with a side of steak. Secondo knows that compromise is necessary for financial success, but he cannot deny that his brother is a magnificent cook–that is why he is Primo, after all–and honestly does not wish to force him go against his beliefs. On the other hand, the bills keep piling up. One night after the usual disaster at his own restaurant, he wanders down the street to Pascal’s and has a heart-to-heart, and Pascal extends a generous hand by promising he will pull one of his many strings and convince jazz singer Louis Prima, who is soon to be performing in town, to have dinner at the brothers’ restaurant. This, Secondo believes, will be a great boon to his business, and may attract the attention not only of the press but of paying customers. All that is left is to prepare.
Because of his financial problems, or perhaps regardless of them, Secondo is unwilling to marry his girlfriend Phyllis (Minnie Driver). Meanwhile, he is sleeping with Pascal’s wife Gabriella (Isabella Rossellini). Primo is married to his art, and has great difficulties talking to Ann (Allison Janney), the woman he can barely admit to fancying. Nobody seems happy among all of these goings on except Pascal, who may or may not know about his wife’s infidelities. Everyone involved has left youth behind and is heading towards middle age, which is perhaps the most difficult time to still live in uncertainty about love and vocation. Still, the imminent arrival of Louis Prima acts as a catalyst for action, a goal to reach for, a deadline not to be missed.
To write more about the film’s plot would be to say too much, because it is thin on plot and heavy on spirit. Every performance ranges from very real to breathtaking. Tucci as director has a light but deft touch, and seems to know exactly what he’s doing behind or before the camera. The Lebanese-American Shalhoub does a fine impersonation of an Italian, leading me to wonder if there’s any nationality he couldn’t pull off if he tried. The film is set in the 1950s, a period hinted at rather than forcefully proven, which of course makes it all the more believable. There are many small, perfect scenes that would have been chopped out of a bigger-budgeted film out of a fear of irrelevancy, and it is pleasant to see them here.
When the eponymous “big night” finally comes, it is an experience that will probably be alien to most American viewers. A grand meal like this has its own dramatic arc every bit as moving and satisfying as a Wagnerian opera. Because of the emphasis on the meal, some have drawn comparisons to the Danish film Babette’s Feast, which had its own point to make about religion and the world, and the modes of grace. Big Night does not seek to answer any of the pressing questions about God and the universe, but because of its narrower focus it possibly succeeds in making its own point more thoroughly. In the end, Tucci is trying to say something important about family, loyalty, dreams, art, love and the sharing of meals, but it is something hard to formulate into words. Perhaps that is why the final scene is nearly wordless.
Rating: Unforgettable
Written on August 28, 2010 by Jonathan
Points of Interest: Drama, Ian Holm, On DVD, Romance, Stanley Tucci, Tony Shalhoub
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