When you make a film, it always help to have first-hand knowledge of its subject matter. Bob Giraldi, film maker also known as one of New York City’s most prominent restaurateurs, applied such knowledge in his 2000 drama Dinner Rush. The plot is set in Tribeca, Manhattan neighbourhood where Louis Cropa (played by Danny Aiello) runs small bookmaking operation. His true passion and source of pride, however, is his restaurant which recently became quite popular. Louis has recently began to contemplate abandoning bookmaking and killing of his partner and old friend Enrico Coventie (played by Frank Bongiorno) only makes his decision more likely. Before it is made, Louis would have to spend another chaotic evening in his restaurant, during which he clashes with son and head chef Udo (played by Edoardo Ballerini) who likes to experiment with new dishes, unlike his more loyal sous-chef Duncan (played by Kirk Acevedo). Duncan, on the other hand, has serious gambling problem and is in debt to Carmen (played by Michael McGlone) and Paolo (played by Alex Corrado), two bookmakers who had killed Enrico. They arrive to restaurant in order to collect the debt from Duncan, but also try to use opportunity to intimidate Louis into making them partners in restaurant.
Giraldi, who had began his career in advertising and made number of popular music videos in early 1980s, has put his experiences in restaurant business to good use, making his film look very authentic. Unlike many of the film makers who had began their careers in the world of music video, Giraldi uses more conventional style. With exception of prologue, almost all of the plot is limited to the restaurant during one evening. However, Giraldi uses this limited setting as canvas to paint relatively large number of interesting characters, many of which are played by respected or recognisable actors led by grandfatherly Danny Aiello. Some of those characters are well-defined, like Duncan, played with great intensity by Kirk Acevedo, while others, like the food critic played by Sarah Bernhard are underused. This Altmanesque story with many subplots gets resolved with finale that some of the viewers might find shockingly bloody, but it generally fits with the rest of the film. Dinner Rush suffers from poor music by Alex Lasarnko, but this flaw isn’t big enough to hamper generally positive impression of this small and unjustly obscure film.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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