Dinner Rush

I’ve been making a habit lately of trying to find more obscure films at the local rental store. I got tipped off to Dinner Rush by a couple review sites and decided to pick it up. I was in for a serious treat. Ostensibly starring Danny Aiello as the long-time owner of a newly trendy Italian restaurant in Tribeca (Manhattan), Dinner Rush follows a large group of characters through one important night.

After opening with an introductory sequence where Aiello’s partner is gunned down in the streets by some two-bit thugs trying to move in on their bookmaking business, the movie jumps to the start of the dinner rush (get it?) an indeterminate but short time later. Throughout the rest of the night the narrative follows approximately seven story lines which intersect in various ways. Primarily you have Aiello and his dealings with his two sons Udo and Duncan. Udo is the star chef at the restaurant who is bringing in massive business and rave reviews, but turning it into a place his father doesn’t like very much. Duncan is the screw-up son who has a major gambling problem, yet keeps getting bailed out by his father. Both sons are screwing Nicole, but she’s really in love with Duncan. Black and Blue are the two thugs that killed the partner and want a piece of the business. To make things interesting Duncan owes them a ton of money. Also dining out that night is an important food critic, a snobby obsequious art critic with his entourage, and a random guy at the bar who gets too much screen time to be totally unimportant.

In case you think I gave too much away, that was about the first 20 minutes worth of plot. For the next 80 minutes you get to act as a fly on the wall constantly swirling between the various stories. By far the most impressive aspect of this project is the constant energy filling the movie but also the clarity with which the story is told. Much of the movie takes place in the kitchen, where you really get the sense of the frantic nature of high-end food preparation. Everyone down there is loose and friendly, yet extremely professional. The stuffy, pretentious atmosphere of the dining room contrasts that. We get to watch the two greeters and several servers contend with all the patrons while also hearing the snide comments made as they walk away. At the bar you’ve got a trivia genius pouring drinks and answering questions at five bucks a challenge. John Corbett as “the guy at the bar” acts, for most of the movie, as the audience’s avatar.

I didn’t even notice while watching the movie, but upon reflection the multicultural cast is refreshing. So often in movies (when they even bother to try) you’ve got what seems to be a painstaking attempt at equal representation. In Dinner Rush you have what seemed to me to be a fairly accurate representation of the various ethnic and cultural groups you would have working in or patronizing this establishment. Best of all, they didn’t play “the Black greeter” or “the Hispanic cook,” but people in the story who happened to be Black or Hispanic.

This is obviously a fairly low budget movie, but the production design was excellent. I think it sets a fabulous example and a good idea for low-budget flicks. If you don’t have much money then set the whole damn thing in one place and trick it out nice. There’s no commentary or features or anything, so I don’t even know if it was a set or location. After watching the movie I couldn’t guess – it could have been either. Due to logistics much of this must have been done using steadicam, since the camera was constantly moving and there simply is not enough room on the set to lay tracks. Contrary to becoming annoying, the constant movement helped add to the frenetic pace of the restaurant. I have several questions about directorial choices like certain distant camera setups and the deliberate blurring in the epilogue. I didn’t get whatever they were attempting to convey, and the affectations were too sporadic to define a “style” for the film.

This story completely hooked me, and not only was I not worried about trying to figure out what would happen, but I’m fairly certain that had I been I still would not have guessed to outcome. It’s very difficult to tell a story in such a compressed time span and have something important occur yet not telegraph it or make it feel too “constructed.” Every single one of the characters comes alive and has a back-story attached to it. That is a tribute to both the script and the actors. I hate writing reviews where I can’t bitch about something, but sometimes there’s just no large-scale complaint to harp on. This is a great movie and I plan to look forward to more from Bob Giraldi (director), Rick Shaughnessy and Brian Kalata (first time writers).