Dinner Rush [DVD] [2002] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

It is a hidden treasure, starring the guy who was born to play this character, the great Danny Aiello as restaurateur Louis Cropa. Louis has to contend with his ambitious son, who is demanding that his father relinquish control of the restaurant. And that's just the first course.....

Son Udo, darling of the glitterati, has transformed the old, traditional Italian menu into something wildly exotic and in Louis' opinion, inedible. BUT the young man HAS made the restaurant into the hottest thing in NY, so....forget about it! Then there's the mob, in the person of two thugs occupying a rear table, who want to muscle in on his old bookmaking racket; they've already shot his old partner. Not to mention his sous-chef, Duncan, who is a brilliantly creative chef in his own right, but who also happens to be a degenerate gambler. Guess who pays his gambling debts?

Some of the best things about the movie are the loving shots of the food being prepared, the balletic moves of the wait staff moving gracefully through the kitchen and up the stairs, and the dialogue between Aiello and the employees. There is a great series of scenes involving a horribly self-important, snobbish art critic who is peeved about having to wait so long for a table. And don't forget Sandra Bernhardt as a snotty, snobby food critic and her slinky dinner guest, known as the "Food Nymph"!

The ending is really cool, a big surprise.

The film was actually made at a restaurant, Gugino's, in NYC, owned by Bob Giraldi, who directed the film! And that's the name of the restaurant in the movie as well. It's obvious he knows food prep!

Gugino's is a five-star eatery, and Dinner Rush a five-star movie.

Duncan's gambling puts the restaurant at risk. Lou is also a bookie and while he has cut Duncan off the kid has gone and found another bookie: the same one who had Lou's friend gunned down at the start of the movie. The competition (Mike McGlone)has shown up, sat down at a prime table, and informed Lou that they are not leaving until they have a partnership. Lou is not thrilled by the idea. Meanwhile, the restaurant is having a very busy night and Udo has already started firing people in the kitchen. This is going to be a long night.

Among those trying to eat in peace are a snobby art gallery owner (Mark Margolis) who is entertaining a visiting Greek artist and miffed that he had to wait 45 minutes for his table and a restaurant critic (Sandra Bernhard) who shows up in a disguise that fools no one. Watching the proceedings at the bar with a wry sense of detachment is Ken (John Corbett), where the bar tender apparently knows everything about anything. The waitress Marti (Summer Phoenix) and the maitresse 'd Nicole (Vivian Wu) are trying to keep everybody happy, but things are slowly building to a climax.

Aiello's character is the calm center of the storm and the question is how strong he really is when push comes to shove. Lou might seem like a gangster, but all he has his his restaurant, his book, his son and his friends. As he admits at one point, he has never held a real gun in his life, but in all that time nobody ever got killed. Now those days are over and his insistence that he will never give up the restaurant rings hollow.

Director Bob Giraldi made "Dinner Rush" in 21 days, but he had a big advantage since it was shot at his own restaurant, Gigino's. It has the look of a Robert Altman theme, but which much more of a sense of warmth and intimacy. He also covers the preparation of the meals in the kitchen with as much care and consideration as he gives his characters. Of course, once you find out that this film was shot in Giraldi's restaurant you are tempted to rethink "Dinner Rush" as a long commercial for the place. But getting to eat some of the food we see prepared and consumed in this film is not the worst of all possible fates and a good reason to put "Dinner Rush" on the menu with "Eat Drink Man Woman," "Like Water for Chocolate," "Babette's Feast" and other films that make you hungry, even if it does belong more with the appetizers than the entrées.