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R: ARCHIVE, S: REVIEWS, D: 09/26/1996, B: Alicia Potter,

Pass the pasta

Big Night is a four-star film/feast

by Alicia Potter

BIG NIGHT. Directed by Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott. Written by Tucci and Joseph Tropiano. With Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, Liev Schreiber, Isabella Rossellini, Ian Holm, Marc Anthony, Campbell Scott, and Allison Janney. A Rysher Entertainment release.

"Give people what they want now," says Pascal to fellow Italian restaurateur Secondo in Big Night. "Later you can give them what you want." Imagine this statement from the mouth of a studio exec and the logic behind the recent glut of copycat flicks and pointless remakes becomes crystal clear. Fortunately, Big Night's first-time co-directors, Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott, resist this recipe for success and bypass the current cult of shoot-from-the-lip filmmaking. The result is a poetic labor of love in which the most affecting scenes are wordless and simple gestures like a knife sinking into a monstrous pasta dish called timpano are steeped in suspense. Gently humorous and surprisingly powerful, Big Night plucks its rhythms from subtle details -- the scrape of a spatula against a skillet or the orgasmic moment when diners push away their plates and indulge their bellies with an undone button. Risotto as religion is not a new concept; Tampopo, Like Water for Chocolate, and Eat Drink Man Woman stylishly celebrate the sensual textures of an elaborate feast. But with its tender portrayals and mouth-watering cinematography, Big Night dishes up its own meditation on food as emotional and physical sustenance.

Set in the 1950s on the New Jersey shore, the film tells the story of two Italian immigrant brothers who are struggling to keep their modest restaurant, the Paradise, from going under. Elder brother and chef Primo (Tony Shalhoub) is a passionate purist from the Old World who slings contempt at the "philistines" hungry for spaghetti and meatballs. His brother and business manager, the refined Secondo (Stanley Tucci), will consider relaxing the kitchen's culinary standards if it means more customers. With the Paradise on the brink of failure, the brothers learn from successful but wily Pascal (Ian Holm ) that famed Italian-American jazz musician Louis Prima is performing in the area. In a publicity ploy, the brothers and their assistant Cristiano (Marc Anthony) plan a "big night" in the bandleader's honor. Among the guests are Gabriella (Isabella Rossellini), the mistress of both Secondo and Pascal, Phyllis (Minnie Driver), Secondo's steadfast American girlfriend, Bob (Campbell Scott), a slick Cadillac salesman, and Ann (Allison Janney), a florist with whom Primo is smitten. What follows is a decadent evening of sumptuous courses, snaking conga lines, and a steady flow of wine. As night fades to morning, exposed secrets stain the festivities like spilled chianti, testing the brothers' bond and the Paradise's survival.

The team's arch direction and sophisticated script never slip toward melodrama, even as the film unravels such heavy themes as the struggle between the Old World and the New, and between art and commerce. Fluid direction contrasts the white tile and gleaming stainless steel of the brothers' modest kitchen with Pascal's hopping trattoria. There the orange whoosh of a flambé dish, a sequined lounge singer, laughing crowds, and a cantankerous espresso machine compete in sensory overload. However, it is the film's bold use of silence that alternatingly unsettles and comforts. In a brilliant, bittersweet five minutes at the film's close, absolutely nothing is said but yet everything is revealed.

Tucci and Shalhoub flicker between tension and compassion as the two brothers who outwardly have little in common but inwardly dream the same dream. Tucci's performance is one of depth and power, as he nails the younger sibling's growing desperation with the slightest twitch of his jaw or the tense straightening of a flowerpot. In volatile contrast, Shalhoub (from television's Wings) as Primo broods with flashing black eyes. Disgusted at Pascal's crass commercialism, he bellows, "The rape of cuisine goes on in that man's restaurant every night!"

Big Night feeds a hunger for smart little films that aren't afraid to take risks. As Primo tends to his kettles and saucepots, he tells a charmed Ann about his uncle's amazing lasagna bolognese back in Italy: "You have to kill yourself, it is so good." Although few films are quite that good, Big Night, with its gutsy aural and visual turns, serves up an original and unusually satisfying feast for the senses.