Big Night

Released September 20, 1996.
Directed by Stanley Tucci & Campbell Scott.

Let's talk about Pauly Shore for a second.

For those of you who didn't experience the first half of the 1990s, you might not know how big of a thing Pauly Shore was. Mr. Shore was the star of a handful of big screen comedies including Encino Man, Son-in-Law, and the early 1996 release Bio-Dome, and for a moment in time he was known even to kids who lived on farms in rural Iowa. A pre-1996 version of myself saw at least two Pauly Shore films in the theater, the last of which was the 1995 comedy Jury Duty - a film I thought wasn't very good then and a film I think is far worse now.

A recent revisit of that film - I don't know why I did it either - led me to realize that a random side character (who played into a third act twist that's about the only entertaining thing in this 12 Angry Men mockery) was played by the now very recognizable, Oscar-nominated character actor Stanley Tucci. As I watched the film unfold as an adult I couldn't help thinking how thankless this experience had to be for Tucci and other members of the cast. It also got me thinking about the film that launched Tucci's Hollywood career in a more respectable direction in 1996.

I can't prove that Jury Duty is the reason why the film I'm about to discuss exists, but I really like to believe it is. Tucci co-wrote, co-directed, and co-starred in this restaurant based comedy that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in early 1996, and reading up on the production of the film I found an interesting piece of trivia. According to legend (and the review of the film written by Roger Ebert, which basically makes it fact) Tucci began working on this script while making a film he hated, because he felt the only way he was going to get a good role was to write one for himself.
Again, I'm just speculating - but I gotta believe in my heart that the film he hated that much was Jury Duty. The timeline checks out.

Which brings us to Big Night, the story of an older brother, Primo, who is a great chef, and a younger brother, Secondo, who is trying to run the Italian restaurant they own in a seaside New England town.* Primo, played by Tony Shalhoub, is a perfectionist with a hot temper, which he lets loose by yelling and fuming whenever customers don't understand the importance of his method or which side dishes should go with which entrees. Secondo, played by Tucci, is less explosive than his brother, but for most of the movie we see him working to keep his calm as the restaurant struggles to succeed in the shadow of a nearby restaurant, whose owner (played by Ian Holm) wants to get the brothers to work for him and give up their own venture.

Big Night was met with critical praise as soon as it hit the independent scene in '96, and looking at the film's witty script and cast of recognizable faces today makes it easy to see why. Tucci and Shalhoub have been good friends throughout their careers, and their work here plays off each other so well. Primo is a perfectionist in the kitchen and refuses to cut corners - at one point exclaiming "If I sacrifice my work, it dies!" to his brother - and Shalhoub shows off the manic intensity that would make him a star on the long-running TV series Monk in the future. Tucci's turn as Secondo gives him a lot of opportunities to show anger and frustration as he longs for a better life, but thanks to his charm it's hard to hold anything against him, even when we find out he's stringing along his young girlfriend (played by a fresh-faced Minnie Driver, before her breakout roles in Grosse Pointe Blank and Good Will Hunting). If Tucci's goal was to write a interesting role for himself, he succeeded - because this film is his to carry in almost every scene.

The film moves at a brisk and charming pace, even in the darker moments between the brothers, building up to the "big night" of the title when the brothers prepare a feast in an effort to entice more business. This dinner is edited together shrewdly, with title cards introducing each course of the meal and reaction shots from the guests at the table punctuating just how delicious the food must be. Tucci is a passionate chef in real life, and even those with a failing knowledge of Italian cuisine, like myself, can understand the passion put into preparing these dishes by the reactions from the characters on screen

Big Night certainly serves as a love letter to food and as a whimsical comedy, but it's the moments where we follow the aspiring younger brother that really make Big Night work for me. One such moment has Tucci test driving a fancy car and soaking up a beautiful afternoon (thanks to a car dealer played by co-director and The Spanish Prisoner star Campbell Scott). Secondo doesn't need to speak here, we can read the thoughts going through his mind and we can tell how much he longs for a more glamorous existence than the restaurant is able to provide for him. That scene alone is a better showcase of Tucci's talents than everything he did in Jury Duty, and the film as a whole lives on as an announcement of his talent to the world.

This is a film I didn't get around to in 1996, but I sure was glad to catch up with it later. Fans of Italian food, quality acting, and sibling rivalries should find Big Night to be worthy of the critical reputation that it received, and it still works today as a wonderfully engaging independent film.
Who would have guessed that Pauly Shore would be the inspiration for that?

Big Night is available to rent or buy on most streaming sites, available to stream with a subscription to Starz, and out-of-print on DVD from Sony Pictures because of course it is.

* - Yes, the brothers' Italian names literally translate to first (Primo) and second (Secondo). I love a script that makes things easy on the viewer.