"(Of) the bright new films that fit no Hollywood formulas?sweetest of all is Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott's Big Night." (Janet Maslin, New York Times, 3/29/96) Set in New York in the late fifties, Big Night tells of two Italian brothers trying to keep a restaurant and a dream alive. Primo (Tony Shalhoub), chef at The Paradise, is an Old World purist for whom cooking and serving the cuisine of his Roman ancestors is life itself. (He's decades ahead of his time in his devotion to such exoticaas risotto, radicchio, and arugula.) His brother Secondo (co-writer/director Stanley Tucci) sees the reality of empty tables and tries every trick to save The Paradise-short of the crime of serving spaghetti and meatballs like the thriving restaurant/lounge across the street. To lure il popolo the brothers throw their all into one Big Night, a culinary epiphany whose ecstasy is enhanced by the promise if not the presence of Louis Prima and his band. The pièce de résistance is the timpano, a many-layered Italian delicacy that the enchanted brothers are moved to kiss as it emerges from the oven. "Mr. Tucci, whose comically reserved performance is a complete delight, goes a long way toward single-handedly establishing the film's beguiling sensibility?.The interplay between Mr. Tucci and the excellent Mr. Shalhoub is no less perfect?.What's most affecting here, beyond the vast charm of the two main characters, is the film's absolute faith in artistry and independence in a world that may not ecessarily respect either one." (Janet Maslin)