'Za!

The movie opens on a pair of kids in the 70s eating lunch with their working class dad, Pete (that annoying heart problem guy from Grey's Anatomy) in a pizzeria. The dad talks wistfully about his unrealized dream of his own restaurant. The kids listen for a while as they eat. The boring story ends, the kids fight over the last piece, the cheese pulls, draws, and snaps. Cut to opening credits.

Fade In. Now 30 years older, the brothers - Joe (Sam Rockwell) and Vince (Steve Zahn) - are standing in front of an open grave. Dad is dead and they are sad. Joe still works in town, but Vince has had to drive in all the way from The City where he works as A Rich Investment Banker. Joe is, you guessed it, single; and Vince is, say it with me, divorced. His ex-wife is, yep, angry at him, and his kid, obviously, never gets to see him. His wife is, let's say, Sara, and is played by Carla Gugino or whatever her name is. His kid is annoying moppy headed child actor #53. Yeah, the one from Oklahoma City.

So for some reason Vince is persuaded to stay in The Hometown to get his mother, Frances (Rosemary Harris) in a nursing home or some shit and while he is there has this life-changing idea to help Joe open a pizzeria in honor of his dad. I am sure it will be called Pete's. Pete's 'Za. (That's what Pete's mother always called it.)

They hire a waitress, Courtney (Mandy Moore), who is studying at the local community college but wants to be an actress. She somehow manages to fall for both and/or either of them. They fight over her. They fight over what kind of 'za they should sell. They fight and make up. Vince's moppet comes to visit and they all have fun. Joe and Courtney fall in love. Pete's makes money. Everyone is happy.

But then everyone is sad. Now that Pete's is a smashing success, Vince can go back to The City and his important job. Before he drives off in his stupid Range Rover, there is hugging and double-back-pats. Courtney is now done with community college and has to make her big break for Hollywood. They make out and she leaves on a bus. (She is probably going to end up a hooker, but that is neither here nor there.)

Joe is alone but he has Pete's and he has money and everything is right with the world, in a melancholy-but-totally-ok sort of way.
*Cue Josh Ritter Music.*


---This movie brought to you by my lunch break and my incredibly grody burrito.

** And thanks to Mia for the one sheet.