An old attorney relives the mistakes of his past and attempts to rewrite the future. But something strange happens along the way and he loses sight of which precedes the other.
Dominic Pelosi’s The Big Noise is a tragi-comedy of the most poignant and pathetic variety imaginable. The movie’s seemingly simple plot concerns an aging lawyer named Morris Falzon (Maurice Marchan), who spends all of his working life with his father George (Mario Marchioni) at their small real estate conveyancing practice. A dreamer who never quite measures up to George’s standards of success, Morris forgets to do certain things, like pay corporate taxes. In clear danger of losing the family business, it looks like it’s curtains for Morris, until his ailing client decides to leave him everything in his will. However, for those who believe in magic, there’s usually a catch— and unfortunately, this is no exception.
It’s hard to believe that The Big Noise is Dominic Pelosi’s first movie, which he directed in collaboration with his equally talented brother, Andrew Pelosi, who wrote the screenplay. The Big Noise has the look and feel of a Vittorio De Sica neorealist-classic, concocted with a huge mixture of absurdist-nightmarescape, a la Luis Buñuel and Alfred Hitchcock. Still, Pelosi’s black and white homage is no lazy mimicry of those cinematic giants, and The Big Noise strikes a very timely, and substantial, universal chord that none of us can afford to discount.
What’s particularly thrilling about Pelosi’s fast-moving gem is that it’s hard to tell the difference between laughter and tears, perhaps because they tend to strike at the same precise moment. It’s equally impossible to markedly separate reality from fiction (take a careful gander at the subtly-heated scenes between Morris and his secretary, Vallerie), or, time and space (notice how Morris and his dad appear the same age). All of these complexities seem effortless under the careful direction of Dominic Pelosi, and make us recognize him as a novel but definite, shining star.
I think it’s pretty clear to see that I’m greatly moved by The Big Noise, even in spite of occasional lighting flaws, which unfortunately slice ½ star off the otherwise perfect 5 that the film deserves. Needless to say, I’m greatly looking forward to Pelosi’s next cinematic venture, no matter where it compels me to roam.
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