Primo, the chef, is a temperamental artist with a passion for risotto, timpani, and suckling pig in an America that thinks of Italian food as spaghetti and meatballs. As the movie begins, Segundo, the business-manager brother, is given 30 days by his banker to turn the restaurant around. Seeing the success that his older rival Pascal is having with a middle-of-the-road, red-checked-tablecloth restaurant nearby, Segundo asks for help. Pascal says he'll call his friend, the famous musician Louis Prima, and ask him to bring his band to the brothers' restaurant. There will be newspaper coverage, and Louis Prima will be served a meal he will never forget. The word will spread, and the restaurant will be saved.

Around this simple premise, Big Night spins romance, betrayal, lust and, always, endearing humor. Tony Shalhoub, as Primo the artist/chef, gives a wonderful, nuanced performance, a far cry from his taxi-driver role on the television show Wings. Ian Holm, as the pompous Pascal, and codirector Campbell Scott, as a shallow Cadillac salesman, carry their roles to perfection. And Isabella Rossellini is, well, Isabella Rossellini, and every movie needs an Isabella Rossellini.