Nonnas is an easy watch about food, family, and healing—maybe too easy. Despite knowing nothing about the restaurant business, management, or cooking, Joey’s (Vince Vaughn) spur-of-the-moment decision to buy a restaurant puts him on a relatively smooth road to accomplishing this new dream. There are far too many conveniences to make this a compelling watch. Rather, it’s a mindless, feel-good story with a good vibe, but not an altogether good movie.
After losing his mother to cancer, Joey uses the life insurance money to open a restaurant in her name to honor her memory. Desperately missing her home cooking and being unable to replicate her famous gravy, Joey decides to hire nonnas (Italian grandmothers) to give the community a warm feeling of home cooking that others like him might want to experience again. With the help of his friends, Bruno (Joe Manganiello) and Stella (Drea de Matteo), he renovates a fixer-upper into a cozy dining establishment. His venture reconnects him with his high school prom date, Olivia (Linda Cardellini), who helps get the restaurant up and running for a hopefully successful opening night.
Vaughn effortlessly plays the part of a grieving son who’s looking for family and connection well. He comes off as genuine and well-meaning, even if he is a bit of a blind optimist. I believe this character could corral together the people necessary to make this venture work and keep them happy while he does it. He’s like the friend that’s hard to stay mad at. Vaughn does a great job of keeping things light with his deadpan cheerfulness.
The ladies who play the four nonnas do an excellent job in giving off that jaded, loving, maternal vibe. Each of them feels full of history and passion once recruited by Joey to cook at the restaurant. Before this, they live dull, unhappy lives and feel they have no sense of purpose since their families are grown up and have moved away.
Roberta (Lorraine Bracco) is the fierce Sicilian who was close friends with Joey’s mother. Antonella (Brenda Vaccaro) plays the loyal Bolognian and feuds with Roberta about each other’s home regions. Teresa (Talia Shire) is a former nun who seems too fragile to contend with Roberta and Antonella. Gia (Susan Sarandon) is the generously proportioned single nonna who bakes pastries and owns a hair salon. Each of them does a great job of giving a distinct voice to their characters, but their characters aren’t as nuanced or interesting as I’d hoped.
Though the film harps on about finances, they don’t present a serious obstacle to Joey. He has money troubles in one scene and in the next, they don’t seem as pressing when he buys a new commercial oven. Issues are brought up, forgotten about, and resolved later in the film to no ill consequences.
The film will have you believe that it’s Joey’s undivided passion for the restaurant that keeps him afloat amid all of the skirting troubles. All he has to do to solve his problems is sidestep them and immediately get back on course. Instead of feeling like a fleshed out story with developments that alter the character’s trajectory, Nonnas feels like it was forced to introduce conflict and got annoyed when it couldn’t make a beeline for the finish.
The only moment when the movie felt like it was being a movie comes toward the last third of the film. Everyone gets excited for all of their hard work to pay off only to be hit by a stroke of bad luck which dampens their spirits and leaves them feeling worse off. It only takes a bit of trespassing and harassment to course-correct this time.
Joey is just too naive and lucky to be a compelling character. He gets everything he wants and doesn’t seem to consider the effects of his actions carefully. Since his childhood, he was told he is perfect and can do no wrong, which he seems to have carried into his adult life. This doesn’t make him an interesting character who I really want to see succeed. He hands off a lot of burden to his friends by either asking them to cover for him at work or guilting them into free labor. I kind of just want to see him be humbled and accept reality for what it is, but he never gets there.
In contrast, Bruno is the only one in the film who seems to have any experience in dealing with real-world problems. As a contractor, he understands the effort needed to get a building up to code, the real stress of finances as he sells a prized possession to pay his workers, and (surprise to Joey) how fire can be a terrible thing for walls. Yet he’s made to look like the hotheaded immature one.
This film would feel much more authentic if Joey was forced to confront his shortcomings and overcome them to achieve a refreshed outlook on life. Some solutions fall into his lap; others are taken care of for him. This film doesn’t take place in the real world but an optimized daydream of someone with no responsibilities who wants to feel like they’re struggling, without ever having to do so.
Joey wants to give back to the community as his way of healing through his grief. He facilitates positive change through his restaurant and is an overall good person. Nonnas is based on a true story and things may have happened as they do in the film, but just because Joey has a feel-good story doesn’t mean that it makes a good film. This is an excellent article but not an excellent movie.
Nonnas is currently streaming on Netflix.