DINNER RUSH
Reviewed by Harvey Karten Access Motion Picture Group Director: Bob Giraldi Writer: Brian S. Kalata, Rick Shaughnessy Cast: Danny Aiello, Edoardo Ballerini, Vivian Wu, Mike McGone, Kirk Acevedo, Sandra Bernhard, John Corbett, Jamie Harris, Summer Phoenix, Polly Draper, Mark Margolis
Americans are taking more meals outside of their homes than ever before. One out of five of us goes to McDonald's at least once a week. But these statistics do not mean that Americans are rushing to the elite dining halls that charge over $100 per feeding. After you see Bob Giraldi's "Dinner Rush," written by Brian S. Kalata and Rick Shaughnessy, you could go one of two ways. Either your mouth will water so much from the marvelous exhibition of foods in the kitchen of a Tribeca establishment or you'll be convinced that these overpriced mess halls are nothing but palaces of snobbery and pretention. Most likely both. As director Giraldi ("Hiding Out" plus a number of commercial videos) perceives the scene, there's considerable drama going on in the kitchen, which employs an army of chefs, salad makers, and dessert people; there's tension in the back table of the establishment (actually filmed in Gigino's in New York's chic Tribeca area), as owner Louis (Danny Aiello) discusses business with his accountant (John Rothman); and there's tension in the main areas of the restaurant as waitresses are both hit on and dissed, gangsters ply their trade in the balcony, and diners ooh and ahh over the expensive cuisine they are served--if indeed they can even get past the maitress d', Nicole (Vivian Wu).
If you went to a place like Gigino and looked around without listening to what the denizens are discussing, you'd imagine that these are people out for a good meal, perhaps to discuss some Wall Street deals, maybe a few bosses plying drinks into their nubile secretaries. On the evening of Giraldi's activities, however, there's finagling on all levels of Gigino's that could be the subject of a Robert Altman movie and, in effect, "The Dinner Rush" is dished out to us as the great Mr. Altman might do.
The first conflict is between owner Louis and his son, head chef Udo (Edoardo Ballerini). The young man will not be satisfied until his dad makes him an equal partner, but Louis is stringing the kid along. The second involves a pathological gambler, Duncan (Kirk Acevedo), who is in debt to the mob and who is being pursued by two low-level gangsters who have been invited to the restaurant by the owner--who has a soft spot in his heart for Duncan because that young man is able to cook real, traditional Italian food for him rather than the "phony" nouvelle cuisine favored by his son and by the critics. Yet a third involves a myriad of conversations among the patrons and waiters, with art critic Fitzgerald (Mark Margolis) insulting the work decorating walls which happened to have been painted by his server, Marti (Summer Phoenix).
Giraldi wisely avoids a conventional, tightly woven narrative tale in favor of a looser structure, setting cameraman Tim Ives from table to table, from bathroom to back room, giving us a pointillist's point of view of what really goes on in those chic places that people patronize not so much for the food as for the show. In fact one patron (John Corbett) muses from the bar, "When did eating out become a Broadway show?" The employees are all good people despite their neuroses but the patrons are, almost to a fault, gleefully obnoxious--providing much of the laughs of this comic melodrama. Sandra Bernhard does a particularly witty turn as a cynical, seen-it-all restaurant critic who is given a surprise dish of a lobster, standing tall in on tail, embracing a shock of fried pasta in its bosom.
While the melodramatic conclusion is a break from the patina of palaver, the hum that patrons love when they go out to eat, it is right in tune with the themes du jour, bookending the plot that begins with a shocking opener. All in all, though some who have seen the movie before advised me to make sure to have a good meal before attending, I probably would have been as disappointed with the nouvelle food being served at probably outrageous prices as I was charmed by the wit and wisdom of the film. Surprisingly, Bob Giraldi, though considered a new director-- who had his film exhibited as such in the New Directors/New Films series of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and of New York's MOMA--turns out some cinema as tempting and delicious as the prize creation of a master chef de cuisine.
Not Rated. Running time: 100 minutes. (C) 2001 by Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com
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