nancy woodruff

Based on a real life event, Nonnas tells a story of how an everyman struggling with grief over his recently deceased mother decides to open a small neighborhood Italian restaurant to honor her lifetime love of cooking for family. Vaughn hires nonnas as the chefs to bring his dream to life. The relationships between the nonna chefs, Vaughn, and his family and friends are highlighted in regret (for a long ago prom date gone wrong), trust, sacrifice, love and loyalty, and re-emergence into living by the retired nonnas. One of the best scenes is a brief glimpse into unconscious bias between the older nonnas and the youngest- Sarandon. Her gentle reply to them and their embarrassed reactions brought gravity and meaning to the movie and drew me into seeing them as real people, not just characters on the screen.