MovieChat Forums > Big Night (1996) Discussion > Big Night ending... happy or sad?

Big Night ending... happy or sad?

posted 18 years ago by number6village
33 replies | jump to latest

I've convinced a number of friends to see Big Night over the years... unfortunately, my enthusiasm tends to lend some folks into thinking it must be the best film ever made. It clearly isn't... however, it is a damn nice movie.

Now, other criticisms come back that the ending is too ambiguous... others say it is too much of a downer.

That's fine. I tend to like films that you want to see a happy ending in, but you get something else.

I actually think there's a bit of a happy ending in Big Night. What do you other fans think?

One friend of mine sums up the film this way: Everyone (or most of the characters) believe they want one thing, yet they get another... possibly the something they actually want.

[–] DarcyBrandon 14 years ago

I thought it was bitter sweet. They still have each other but they have to start all over. I think the brothers have to part ways or something.

[–] angelosdaughter 14 years ago

It was bittersweet, but I think it's the other way around: they may have to start over, but they will always be brothers, no matter what happens. I think the brotherly relationship is at the core of this film. It's beautiful.

[–] Merely 14 years ago

i just watched the very end alone in my kitchen while i made myself breakfast...but it felt as if i wasn't alone.

:)

[–] AlbaITA 13 years ago

I'ts neither happy or sad. It's both and more, just as life is.

[–] littleteakettle 13 years ago

Throughout the movie you see Secondo and Primo at odds and in general, stressed out. The ending is oddly sober and refreshing. But honestly I think the ending reaffirms what the best thing about food: that it's a way of sharing with other people. Sure, it can be a business, but fundamentally, it can be much more. So I felt like it was a reaffirmation of that idea.

[–] Ernest_Carpenter-Baggins 13 years ago

One of those great endings that excellent movies tend to offer:
good or bad is mostly in what you bring to it.
For me Big Night's ending usually has something of both good and bad;
sadness and optimism.
And anytime I think about it, I can still see a plate of scrambled eggs being whipped up on the morning after, without effort or thought, perfectly.

[–] bighalsy 12 years ago

It wasn't either really. the film was just a slice of life that revolved around food, family, friends. This sort of thing happens to people all the time.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] BB-15 11 years ago

The problem with the ending for me was the final confrontation between the characters played by Tucci and Ian Holm.

SPOILERS

Holm's woman companion (played by Isabella Rossellini) had told the brother, Primo, that Pascal (Holm) had scammed the brothers into spending almost all their money on the dinner.
- Primo confronted Pascal and Pascal just shrugged (admitting his guilt) and walked away leaving the restaurant.
* Holm's character should then have gone to his own restaurant.
* But in the movie the brother Secondo (Tucci) finds Pascal coming back to the brother's restaurant playing the piano.
That's absurd.
In real life a restaurant owner on the East Coast of the US would threaten to kill someone over the stunt that Pascal pulled.
But Pascal is by himself with no protection (which also would not happen) in the restaurant that he just helped put out of business.

** It would have been better for the movie if Secondo had gone to Pascal's restaurant to hunt Pascal down.
And then had a fight in that restaurant with some of Pascal's employees.
Then Pascal's lecture about being a businessman would not only make more sense but the scene would have been much more exciting climax to the movie.

END SPOILERS

* While Big Night had some nice character moments and the food looked delicious, the unrealistic ending hurt the film badly for me.

BB ;-)

it's just in my opinion - imo -