Restaurant

As recovering restaurant workers, we looked forward to a little more reality. There were flashes of insight (like maybe the film-makers had actually worked in a restaurant), and we liked the truthfulness of the racial mix, although the racial tensions seemed a little too 1960s ... could really be that far behind?

The frustration and disappointment comes from the film being SO close to getting things right, and missing so consistently.

"Restaurant" is your basic boy-meets-girl movie, with emphasis on "basic" - it operates on autopilot throughout. It has the basic feel of a made-for-TV schmaltzfest, and it handles racial issues with the same level of intellectual vigor.

The main character of "Restaurant", a playwright who considers his work "beyond great" (what we see of it looks pretty silly and shallow), finds himself unable to finish his most recent production. I can only assume this was semi-autobiographical, since this movie has no clear ending in sight throughout, and the ending it does bring about for us is clumsy and completely incongruous with the rest of the story.

Restaurant takes on a lot, and succeeds. Various story lines are carefully interwoven as the film takes on issues of race relations and day-to-day life in small town NJ. Genuinely humorous throughout, "Restaurant' is a beautifully written tale of twenty-something artists struggling to grow up. Adrien Brody and Elise Neal co-star in their roles as interracial lovers, and put similar relationships depicted in movies such as "Jungle Fever" to shame. Supported by a cast of top-notch actors, what could be a lot to take on in the confines of one film ends up feeling like the perfect mix of elements. "Restaurant" is a touching, heartfelt rendition of the lives of young artists working to overcome the confines of their 9 to 5 jobs.

There is not much to say about this except to warn other people not to waste their money on it. The story-telling and the directing was so obnoxious. It was a total no-brainer. A duh..movie that only hit my vagal nerve and made me nauseous. There is a long time since I have walked out of a movie but this one made it. Better luck to the actors and producers next time.

RESTAURANT (2000) *** Adrien Brody, Elise Neal, David Moscow,Simon Baker-Denny, Catherine Kellner, Malcom Jamal Warner, John Carroll Lynch, Jesse L. Martin, Sybil Temchen, Vonte Sweet, Lauryn Hill. Brody gives a great performance as a struggling playwright who works in a trendy Hoboken eatery as a bartender and is trying to juggle a new promising relationship with waitress/singer wanna be Neal (equally good) while coming to terms with his ex (pop superstar Hill) as well as living his life with his co-workers, each with their own charming eccentricities.

Novice filmmaker Eric Bross and screenwriter Tom Cudworth combine to make a memorable little gem of a film with funny, adroit dialogue and its strong message of racism underplayed without pandering to the audience.