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Dinner Rush
***1/2
Cinema Releases - March 29, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. 98
minutes. Directed by Bob Giraldi. Written by Brian S. Kalata, Rick Shaughnessy.
Starring Danny Aiello, Edoardo Ballerini, Vivian Wu, Mike McGlone, Kirk Acevedo,
Sandra Bernhard, Summer Phoenix.
I went into "Dinner Rush" expecting
a reasonably entertaining restaurant movie that would probably retread "Big
Night" a little too much. I was wrong. This is a movie of rich specifics
and stylistic creativity that clearly comes from the heart. The director,
Bob Giraldi, actually owns the restaurant his movie was filmed in, and it
feels like it was made from the inside out. More important than Giraldi's
knowledge about the food preparation business, however, is his confidence
as a filmmaker.
There is so much going on here! Danny Aiello plays
Louis, the restaurant owner whose son Udo (Edoardo Ballerini) has taken over
as chef, creating strange dishes that wow the critics but leave Louis asking
another member of the kitchen staff, Duncan (Kirk Acevedo), to make him something
more down-to-earth on the side. Louis talks not only to Louis and Duncan,
but to his accountant, to restaurant guests, to waiting staff. They all in
turn talk to other people, of course, but let me not forget that Udo himself
is an important figure, barking orders at his cooks with military impatience.
"Get out! You're fired! This kitchen will not be a refuge for misfits!" he
barks to one man. A minute later he instructs another, "There are only three
possible answers in this kitchen -- 'yes, chef', 'no, chef' and 'I don't
know, chef'!"
Udo is sort of having a fling with Nicole (Vivian
Wu), as is Duncan, and Duncan and Louis are both attempting to deal with
gangsters, who are being served by Marti (Summer Phoenix), who is also the
waitress for an obnoxious art critic named Fitzgerald (Mark Margolis), who
cantankerously complains and jibes with every breath, and is hilarious because
he's so thoroughly offensive and egoistic without even realising it. Et cetera,
et cetera -- we meet lots of people, most of whom know each other or come
into contact with each other, who swim around this one crammed location over
the course of one busy evening. There are serious and light dramas, tender
moments, funny exchanges and functional moves filmed with
fascination.
"Dinner Rush" has all the involvement of an Altman
film, but Giraldi's camera does not roam or poke as much -- it cuts around,
observing things, absorbing plot and character threads with patience and
subtlety. Think of the last time you were at a party, or somewhere else with
lots of people -- you move around to different places, you have different
histories with each of the people you talk to, the night has peaks and troughs,
different groups have different moods. It's an obvious thing, but this movie
captures it in a sort of beautiful way, while telling some damn good little
stories to boot. "Dinner Rush" knows people, knows the beauty of food, knows
the buzz, hum and chaos of a restaurant, and fuses it all with clarity. This
is a movie to get lost inside.
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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