‘Big Night’: THR’s 1996 Review

On Sept. 20, 1996, following a well-received bow at the Sundance Film Festival, Samuel Goldwyn released the Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub movie Big Night in theaters. The restaurant drama ultimately grossed $12 million globally in its run. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:

There is a welcome sweetness at the core of Big Night that is all too rare in today’s cruelty-obsessed cinema. The tale of two Italian immigrant brothers who dream of running a successful restaurant in America, the film was a huge favorite in Sundance and could achieve modest commercial success despite its lack of exploitable elements. It is being shown as part of the New Directors/New Films series.

Clearly a labor of love, the film stars Stanley Tucci, currently hot because of his mesmerizing turn in television’s Murder One, and Tony Shalhoub. Tucci co-wrote the script (with his cousin, Joseph Tropiano) and co-directed with actor Campbell Scott, who also plays a supporting role in the film as an unctuous Cadillac sales man.

Secondo (Tucci) and his brother Primo (Shalhoub) run a restaurant on the Jersey shore in the mid-1950s. Despite Primo’s brilliance in the kitchen and Secondo’s business savvy, the restaurant is failing, one reason being Primo’s refusal to compromise on his culinary perfectionism. When a customer orders a side order of spaghetti to go with the meticulously prepared risotto that she utterly fails to appreciate, the horrified Primo practically rushes out of the kitchen with his knife.

Secondo, who is willing to adapt in order to give the customers what they want, enviously looks on while the more prosaic restaurant down the street, run by the savvy Pascal (Ian Holm), can’t keep the customers away. He is torn between his desire for success and his love for his brother.

One day, Pascal, who has been trying to recruit the brothers to work for him, makes an offer. He is good friends with the popular singer Louis Prima; he will induce Prima to stop by the restaurant one night, and Secon do and Primo can throw a big feast to dazzle him and garner media attention.

Along the way, the film also explores the romantic lives of the brothers.

Secondo is dating a good-natured and devoted young American woman (Minnie Driver), while simultaneously having an affair with Pascal’s Italian girlfriend and hostess (Isabella Rossellini). And Primo adores the florist (Allison Janney) who provides flowers for the meal, but is hopelessly tongue-tied when it comes to talking with her.

During the course of the meal truths are revealed, wounds are opened, and the brothers’ professional and romantic crises come to a head. But the bond between them, delineated in a heartbreakingly touching and quiet final scene, is not broken.

Big Night manages to be openly emotional and at the same time quietly but hilariously funny. The movie never punches for laughs, and the filmmakers are amazingly assured in their subtle style and their meticulous attention to detail.

The performances are all dead on: Tucci, who has often played sleazy types, has never been this appealing, and Shalhoub, who is no stranger to funny Italian characters (he plays Antonio in the TV series Wings), infuses Primo with a touching dignity.

Big Night may not be a big film, but it is one you will not soon forget. — Frank Scheck, originally published on April 1, 1996.