Amazon.com Chris (Adrien Brody), an aspiring playwright, pays the bills as a bartender at an upscale New York restaurant and pours his frustrations into his work. Jeanine (Elise Neal), an aspiring singer from a musical family, is the newest waitress on the staff. He's Italian American and she's African American, but the chemistry is there. All that stands between them is Chris's unresolved feelings for his ex (pop star Lauryn Hill in a cameo), the reverberations of his blue-collar father's dinner-table racism, and the unspoken and usually ignored but unavoidable issue of race. Eric Bross (Ten Benny, also with Brody) has a light touch with his ensemble cast--which also features Malcolm-Jamal Warner as a well-spoken law student and Jesse L. Martin of TV's Law and Order as a philosophical line cook--and the thoughtful script. The issues simmer below the surface of the individual dramas, romantic complications, and personal struggles with self-esteem and responsibility that buzz through the restaurant, finally boiling over in a raw but dramatically restrained finale. Much of the drama floats between clear-eyed honesty and hip glibness, but Bross and his cast anchor the drama in vivid, complicated characters who bring the film to life. Restaurant, which sat on the shelf before receiving a short theatrical run, is no Do The Right Thing, but in its own respectful way manages to cast a fresh look at race relations. --Sean Axmaker
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