Directed By Stephen Chbosky

Starring – Vince Vaughn, Susan Sarandon, Lorraine Bracco

The Plot – After losing his beloved mother, a reeling man named Joe (Vaughn) risks everything to honor her by opening an Italian restaurant with actual grandmothers as the chefs.

Rated PG for suggestive material, adult language and thematic elements.

NONNAS | Official Trailer | Netflix

POSITIVES

To anyone fortunate to have grown up within an Italian family, “Nonnas” feels like a warm hug with a crust, thanks to the authenticity factor naturally distributed among its rich sense of traditionalism and family-first ideals that Chbosky supplants at the forefront of his intoxicating direction. I use that descriptive verb not only as a means of establishing the inseparable and timeless link that the family dynamic exudes across the sacred dinner table, but also the impeccable imagery distributed throughout the movie’s duration, which garners with it a rich delicacy of food pornography that will undoubtedly rumble your tummies with tantalizing temptation. Aside from food being a delicious means of pleasure, I love that Chbosky utilizes it as the lasting memory of those unfortunately departed, where in the case of Joe it serves as a means of holding onto the one thing left that he has from his mother, simultaneously in his overall evasion from the grief that occasionally consumes him. While the script has problems with the simplicity of its structure, as well as the commitment to its characterization, the approach to mounting conflicts pertaining to the unpredictability of running a business goes a long way towards articulating the resiliency of his character, where everything that he and his elderly cooking staff face towards attaining a successful business is the everyday reality of many in the culinary industry, with many unforeseen highs and lows along the way that taint and complicate his already tender heart that is inspired by the sentimentality that drives him. The tone definitely isn’t afraid to get schmaltzy when it drives home the clashing of crossroads between the past and present that make up Joe’s lasting memories, but it also refuses to feel like a wet blanket on the integrity of the narrative, proving not only the overpowering impact of a community of family and friends who continuously go out of their way for the people they love, but also the inspiring ability to constantly recreate yourself, regardless of age or distance to the journey. Another pivotal aspect to the movie’s integrity is the versatility among Florian Ballhaus’ vibrant cinematography, which artistically paints the differing atmospheres to Joe’s life with an intricate layering of meaning that goes a long way towards externalizing his internal feelings. The times of family dinners in Joe’s memories, as well as those within the building blocks of this up-and-coming business, are elicited with a warmly glowing essence of goldened color grading that permeates breathlessly across this indulging canvas, crafting an affectionately intimate environment summarizing all of the good times to be had, while those moments of Joe at his other job enact a coldly damp and discomforting ominousness that unabashedly outline the unappealing circumstances that have inspired such a career change in his life. It adds a light-hearted radiance that subliminally reminds the audience of the good times to be had under this roof, similar to the constructs of a restaurant, in turn maintaining the air of its engagement with enough artistic allure that luminates without getting in the way of the substance of the material, putting its heart first and foremost in the empowering elements of empathy, which connect so many of us to one universal language. As for the performances, there’s plenty of charm to be had by a legitimately Italian ensemble, or Susan Sarandon’s free-spirited Gia, or even Lorraine Bracco’s confrontational Roberta, however it’s ultimately Vince Vaughn’s tenderness as Joe that makes for the movie’s primary ingredient, where the expectations of Vaughn’s mile-a-minute comedic dialogue distribution is replaced by an essence of sincerity and compassion that allows the actor to show off an impeccable amount of dramatic range that we’ve only recently been privy to. While Vaughn avoids the emotional collapse that typically come with these characters cast in defining predicaments after untimely loss, his portrayal isn’t without the kind of vulnerability that feel close to tears in any of the honest interactions that he shares with the movie’s characters, with an enveloping longing and appreciation for those simpler times in his memories that drive his unyielding determination, in turn supplanting the softer and gentler side to Vaughn’s capabilities that prove him to be so much more than the comedic heavyweight that dominated the first twenty years of his career.

NEGATIVES

While the script is entertainingly effective enough throughout a nearly two hour runtime, the simplistic structure doesn’t come without consistent hinderances, primarily in the inconsistencies of characterization and an unnecessarily emerging love angle that plague the story towards not reaching as deep as it rightfully should’ve. This is undoubtedly Joe’s movie, first and foremost, so this will be forgivable to some audiences, however the lack of exploring towards the titular Nonnas, especially once the script delves into some of their suppressed traumas among their respective lives, leaving the third act resolutions that each of them reach towards feeling not only rushed and one-dimensional, but also a grave mishandling of them being the real heart of this story, leaving the personalities of these women to work overtime towards a majority of their on-screen time being montages that abruptly move the story forward, which is especially disappointing considering their established backstories could’ve unearthed something equally dramatic, in order to take some of the pressure off of Vaughn’s broad shoulders. As for the aforementioned emerging romance between Joe and Olivia (Played here by Linda Cardellini), the lack of romantic chemistry and tone deaf handling involving the former trying to redeem himself for abandoning her at their high school prom completely undermines the emotional resonance of Joe’s ark, where he’s attempting to resolve their dispute, but beyond that especially feels like something juvenile pulled from one of Vaughn’s previous comedies, instead of the feel-good family drama that this film constantly persists as. The sequence comes and goes as rapidly and undefining as a deleted scene, which is ironic because I came away from it ultimately feeling like it should’ve been omitted from the finished draft, with more time being devoted to each of the Nonnas, whom I still can’t effectively muster even a couple of things that I learned between any one of them. Finally, it can be commendable for a film to not reach for the same kind of dramatic heft that so many other films about grief reached before it, but I ultimately found “Nonnas” to lack that single definitive scene that brings everything together as a dramatic heavyweight, all the while leveling Joe nearly to pieces by the overcoming difficulties with realizing his dream that the script goes out of its way to articulate. Instead, he keeps it together throughout the duration of the engagement, and as a result fails to give us that full circle moment of devastation where the script asks Vaughn to dig the deepest into his bottled intensity, in order to unearth the irreplaceable void left by his character losing the light of his life.

OVERALL
“Nonnas” definitely could’ve used more time inside of the oven, especially with the undercooked development among supporting characters, however it’s nevertheless a satisfyingly feel-good dish of Italian ideals that is served with love, cementing a charming real-life underdog story about picking up the pieces after untimely loss. Between a tenderly subdued performance from Vince Vaughn, as well as invitingly glowing atmosphere that goes down easy, the film pulls up a chair for its indulging audiences, preparing a seven course meal of humbling humanity and delicious dishes that will have your heart growing, and your tummy growling.

My Grade: 7.2 or B-