Enter: Big Night.
Big Night is full of flavour, passion, emotion, honesty, humour, and connection. One of the details from the film that I am naming and savouring is this: the place (or places) we keep our souls.
The two main characters in the story are brothers who, in some respects, are the antithesis of each other. In the face of the potential collapse of their restaurant - considerably weighty as they had left their home and family in Italy to make life a little larger for themselves in America - they can choose to either keep their souls in the details of the things they believe in (family, loyalty, the purity of great food, generosity, and hospitality) or lose their souls to the disloyal, scheming ways of getting ahead.
The keeping of our souls is detail-centred. In the little decision-making moments of how we live out relating to one another, how we savour things that taste amazing and may take all day to cook, and how we hold onto our hopes even as they get trampled is part of the messy, arm-around-each-another beauty of life.
If you take some time to see this film (or saw it in the mid-90's), please let me know if you enjoy it (enjoyed it), too.
