''Big Night'' is a 1996 American

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film co-directed by

Campbell Scott Campbell Scott (born July 19, 1961) is an American actor, producer and director. His roles include Steve Dunne in '' Singles'', Mark Usher in '' House of Cards'', Joseph Tobin in ''Damages'', and Richard Parker in '' The Amazing Spider-Man'' an ...

and

Stanley Tucci Stanley Tucci Jr. ( ; born November 11, 1960) is an American actor and filmmaker. Involved in acting from a young age, he made his film debut in John Huston's '' Prizzi's Honor'' (1985), and continued to play a variety of supporting roles in fil ...

. The film stars Tucci, alongside Minnie Driver,

Ian Holm Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert (12 September 1931 – 19 June 2020) was an English actor who was knighted in 1998 for his contributions to theatre and film. Beginning his career on the British stage as a standout member of the Royal Shakespeare Compan ...

Isabella Rossellini Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (born 18 June 1952) is an Italian-American actress, author, philanthropist, and model. The daughter of the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and the Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted ...

, Allison Janney and Tony Shalhoub. Produced by David Kirkpatrick and Jonathan Filley for the

Samuel Goldwyn Company The Samuel Goldwyn Company was an American independent film company founded by Samuel Goldwyn Jr., the son of the famous Hollywood mogul, Samuel Goldwyn, in 1978. Background The company originally distributed and acquired art-house films fr ...

, the film was met with largely positive reviews and grossed $14 million worldwide. It was nominated for the "Grand Jury Prize" at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

and the "Grand Special Prize" at the

Deauville Film Festival The Deauville American Film Festival (french: Festival du cinéma américain de Deauville, link=no) is a yearly film festival devoted to American cinema, which has taken place since 1975 in Deauville, France. It was established by Lionel Ch ...

. Scott and Tucci won the New York Film Critics Circle Award and the

Boston Society of Film Critics Award The Boston Society of Film Critics (BSFC) is an organization of film reviewers from Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. History The BSFC was formed in 1981 to make “Boston’s unique critical perspective heard on a national and internati ...

for Best New Director. Tucci and Joseph Tropiano won the

Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay The Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay is one of the annual awards given by the Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film and independent filmmakers. It was first presented in 1994 with David O. Russ ...

Plot

On the

Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore (known by locals simply as the Shore) is the coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Geographically, the term encompasses about of oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy in the north to Cape May P ...

in the 1950s, two Italian immigrant brothers from

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

own and operate a restaurant called "Paradise". One brother, Primo, is a brilliant, perfectionist chef who chafes under their few customers' expectations of "Americanized" Italian food. Their uncle's offer for them to return to Rome to help with his restaurant is growing in appeal to Primo. The younger brother, Secondo, is the restaurant manager, a man enamoured of the possibilities presented by their new endeavor and life in America. Despite Secondo's efforts and Primo's magnificent food, their restaurant is failing to gain success and recognition. Secondo's struggles as a businessman render him unable to commit to his girlfriend Phyllis, and he has recently been sleeping with Gabriella, the wife of a competitor. Her husband's eponymous restaurant, "Pascal's", has succeeded despite (or perhaps due to) the mediocre, uninspired food served there. Desperate to keep Paradise afloat, Secondo asks Pascal for a loan. Pascal demurs, repeating a past offer for the brothers to work for him, which Secondo refuses: he and his brother want their own restaurant. In a seemingly generous gesture, Pascal insists that he will persuade popular Italian-American singer

Louis Prima Louis Leo Prima (December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and trumpeter. While rooted in New Orleans jazz, swing music, and jump blues, Prima touched on various genres throughout his career: he forme ...

to dine at Paradise when in town, assuming the celebrity jazz singer's patronage will revitalize the brothers' business. Primo and Secondo dive into the preparations for this "big night", spending their entire savings on food, drinks and decoration, inviting numerous people (including a newspaper reporter and Primo's love interest) to join them for a magnificent feast showcasing a timpano (a complex baked pasta dish). Primo pours his heart into every dish, lavishing care and great expertise on the cooking. As they wait for Prima and his entourage to arrive, the dinner party indulges in the exquisite food and partakes in a fabulous celebration. Hours go by, however, and it becomes apparent that the famous singer is not coming, although a reporter who came to cover the singer's appearance promises to ask his newspaper to send a food critic. Phyllis catches Secondo and Gabriella kissing and runs off to the beach. At Gabriella's insistence, Pascal admits that he never called Louis Prima, thus ending the party. Secondo follows Phyllis to the beach where they have a final quarrel. Primo and Secondo have a fiery, heart-wrenching argument, chafing at their mutual differences. In the wee hours of the morning, Pascal admits to Secondo that he set the brothers up for failure; not as revenge for Secondo's affair with Gabriella but because the brothers would have no choice but to return to Italy or work for Pascal. Secondo refuses him, saying they will never work for him. As dawn breaks, Secondo silently cooks an

omelette In cuisine, an omelette (also spelled omelet) is a dish made from beaten eggs, fried with butter or oil in a frying pan (without stirring as in scrambled egg). It is quite common for the omelette to be folded around fillings such as chives ...

. When done, he divides it among three plates, giving one to Cristiano, their waiter, and eating one himself. Primo hesitantly enters, and Secondo hands him the last plate. They eat without speaking, and lay their arms across one another's shoulders.

Cast

as Secondo * Tony Shalhoub as Primo * Minnie Driver as Phyllis *

as Pascal *

as Gabriella * Allison Janney as Ann Travis *

Marc Anthony Marco Antonio Muñiz Rivera (born September 16, 1968), known professionally as Marc Anthony, is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He is the top selling tropical salsa artist of all time. A three-time Grammy Award and six-time Latin Gr ...

as Cristiano * Caroline Aaron as Woman in restaurant *

as Bob *

Susan Floyd Susan Floyd (born May 13, 1968) is an American actress who has appeared in many episodes of ''Law & Order'', as well as numerous other television series. She has also had featured roles in several motion pictures, including '' Domestic Disturbanc ...

as Joan *

Pasquale Cajano Pasquale Cajano (born Pasquale Cagiano; August 19, 1921 in Italy– October 24, 2000) was an Italian-American New York City Italian AM Radio personality DJ in the 1960s and later career a film actor. After two uncredited cameo appearances in ''Th ...

as Alberto N. Pisani * Robert W. Castle as Father O'Brien *Andre Belgrader as Stash *Gene Canfield as Charlie *

Liev Schreiber Isaac Liev Schreiber (; born October 4, 1967) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and narrator. He became known during the late 1990s and early 2000s after appearing in several independent films, and later mainstream Hollywood ...

as Leo

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 56 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The performances in ''Big Night'' are wonderful, and the food looks delicious." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* *
"Heaven and Hell in ''Big Night''"
{{Stanley Tucci 1996 comedy-drama films 1996 films American comedy-drama films Cooking films Films about Italian-American culture Films directed by Stanley Tucci Films set in New Jersey Films set in restaurants Films set in the 1950s Sundance Film Festival award winners 1996 independent films The Samuel Goldwyn Company films 1996 directorial debut films Films about brothers Italian-language American films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films 1990s Italian-language films 1996 multilingual films American multilingual films