Big Night Critic Reviews

By the end of the movie, we have been through an emotional and a sensual wringer, in a film of great wisdom and delight.Read the full review

The real feast is in the mix of characters, each so finely and unschmaltzily delineated in a script so confident and controlled that even the most passing of participants comes alive.Read the full review

A robustly imaginative sleeperRead the full review

In addition to their deft skill with light drama, the directors understand well-placed humor, and throw just the right amount of comedy into the mix to make Big Night fun without turning it into an outright farce.Read the full review

As delicately and deliciously prepared as the dishes it features, Big Night is a lyric to the love of food, family and persuasive acting.Read the full review

This unlikely collaboration between actors Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott is extremely well directed, making for a smartly made, delightfully acted period piece whose sensibility neatly straddles art films and the mainstream.Read the full review

It's the moviegoing equivalent of great eating.Read the full review

The film is loaded with brotherly affection and with warm, funny and poignant evocations of a gentler time.[20 September 1996, p.C12]Read the full review

Both a delightful story and a great food movie that ranks with "Like Water for Chocolate'' or "Babette's Feast.''Read the full review