The new Vince Vaughn movie “Nonnas” aspires to be a bit of cinematic comfort food. It’s based on a heartwarming true story, features a lot of shots of simmering Sunday sauces and touts a lovable cast of veteran Italian American actors in Talia Shire, Lorraine Bracco, Brenda Vaccaro and Susan Sarandon. One would hope that those are the kind of ingredients that would be difficult to mess up too badly.
And “Nonnas,” streaming on Netflix Friday, is what it wants to be: A glossy, movie version of the local joint. Nothing’s groundbreaking or particularly unexpected, the story beats are predictable, and the music choices and Italian American stereotypes a bit cliché. And yet it’s done with an evident earnestness and kindness that makes it impossible to write off. Is it a sign of the times that a bunch of people just being kind to one another is basically enough?
“Nonnas” was directed by Stephen Chbosky (“Perks of Being a Wallflower”) working off of a script by Liz Maccie, whom he is married to, and based on the true story of a New Yorker named Joe Scaravella (Vince Vaughn) who starts a Staten Island restaurant with Italian grandmothers as the chefs.
Joe has no business savvy or restaurant knowledge, just an idea after the loss of his own mother and grandmother. He just wants to pay tribute to the way that they always made him feel with their cooking in the kitchen. There’s a gauzy, sun soaked flashback to the neighborhood in the 1960s showing a young Joe watching his mother and grandmother make the Sunday sauce that’s so idealized, so full of smiles as substitute for character, it might as well be a Prego commercial.
There is an obvious reverence for cultural predecessors like “Moonstruck” and “My Cousin Vinny” baked into “Nonnas,” though it can’t quite find the natural rhythm that might have made it work better. It whiplashes between big comedic swings (including a food fight between the feuding nonnas) and utter sincerity and it is in no rush to get anywhere fast.
But perhaps the greatest miscalculation is centering the story on Joe instead of the women. The nonnas are met where they are in life — a former nun (Shire), a hair salon owner (Sarandon), a retiree (Bracco) who’s estranged from her kids and a widow (Vaccaro) who needs to get out of the house. It seems like there was a missed opportunity to get to know their stories and recipes more. If food is love, give the audience a chance to fall in love with them through their favorite dishes. Instead, they bond not over food or new appreciation of one another’s heritage, but a makeover.
Still, it’s worth noting that “Nonnas” is not nearly as gimmicky as it could have been. Vaughn is good in a more subdued role — the stereotypes-for-comedy’s-sake are left for his friends ( Joe Manganiello and Drea de Matteo) to live and die by. A love story with his old prom date (played by Linda Cardellini) feels a little tacked on to everything else, but I suppose is also just another layer to the second chances narrative.
Chbosky and his cinematographer Florian Ballhaus take care to shoot working class Staten Island beautifully, without gimmicks to overromanticize the reality. Even the “before” images of the restaurant have a glint to them, drawing the audience in to see the potential that Joe sees. Be sure to keep watching through the credits for a little real-life coda.
“Nonnas,” like comfort food, may be a little obvious, a little safe, but that’s the point.
“Nonnas,” a Netflix release streaming Friday, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for “suggestive material, language and thematic elements.” Running time: 111 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
