Vaughn plays Joe Scaravella, a single sad sack who lived with his mother until his late forties. We meet him right after her death and he's an emotional, unmotivated mess. Friends suggest he do something new to move on with his life, so he uses his inheritance money to open a restaurant in his mother's memory. To be authentic, and as a unique hook, he hires Italian nonnas (grandmothers) to do the cooking.
The eponymous grandmothers are played by Susan Sarandon (78), Brenda Vaccaro (85), Talia Shire (79) and Lorraine Bracco (70). The most fun comes from seeing these four dynamos in action as they first reject, then accept and finally come to love one another as family. Two other standouts are Bruno (Joe Manganiello) and Stella (Drea de Matteo) as Joe's best friends. (I was very happy to see Stella a.k.a. Adriana alive and well after Silvio, at Christopher's behest, killed her in New Jersey's Pine Barrens on The Sopranos.)
Most problematic is the script. For example, Joe doesn't hire any waiters but somehow all the food gets from the kitchen to the dining room. He opens a fabulous restaurant -- look for the backlit wine rack behind the bar -- with almost no money. Not one customer shows up for an entire month and so Joe decides to close the place, but first invites all his friends for a big party to use up all the food and a crowd of people arrive. Why didn't he invite them on opening night? That was stupid. But not as stupid as the food fight in the kitchen -- you'll know it when you see it.
The bottom line: Nonnas employs every cinematic and verbal cliche in the book, including musical ones, to tug at the heartstrings of a willing audience seeking to escape the harsh realities of everyday life. It doesn't succeed.
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