Big Night is a great film from the mid 1990s written by Joseph Tropiano and Stanley Tucci. (A quick Google search didn't turn up a whole lot for Joseph Tropiano, but I did learn that he's Stanley Tucci's cousin.) Campbell Scott (now on USA's Royal Pains) and Stanley Tucci directed the picture.Anyway, the film, set in New Jersey in the 1950s, follows two brothers; fantastic chef Primo, played by Tony Shalhoub (Monk, Wings, that guy in the X-Files episode whose shadow disintegrates people) and Secondo, portrayed by Stanley Tucci (recently, Julie & Julia, The Devil Wears Prada, and, unfortunately, The Core). The two brothers operate a struggling restaurant, Paradise. Primo refuses to compromise authentic Italian cuisine by catering toward the unrefined American palate.
Ian Holm, (Ratatouille, The Fellowship of the Ring, Alien), successful restaurateur and owner of Pascal's, and eponymous restaurant that serves spaghetti and meatballs, steak and French fries, wants the brothers to come work for him. While the brothers struggle with the choice of staying in the U.S., returning to Rome to work for their uncle, or working for the other restaurant, Pascal offers to invite his good friend, jazz singer Louis Prima, to dine at Paradise and catapult the restaurant to a premier and exclusive establishment. So, the two brothers invite their friends and prepare for their Big Night. Minnie Driver, Marc Anthony, Allison Janney, Isabella Rossellini, and Liev Schreiber also appear.
