Walking past the big window of one of Hoboken’s Italian restaurants on Washington Street, I was oddly comforted by the reassuring presence of actor Danny Aiello. He was goombah-ing it up with his cronies and a bottle of red. In an age of Ocean’s 11 rat-pack revivalism, Danny and his boys bring Sinatraesque mystique full-circle back to where it all began – the town where Frank was born. Could you imagine the possibilities if he hooks up with Hobokenite Joe “Joey Pants” Pantoliano? Fuggedaboutit!
Once, in passing from the sidewalk, I waved to Danny through the restaurant window. He waved back cheerfully, though I’m sure he forgot the moment several years back at a pizzeria in town when I had told him how much I loved his Moonstruck character “Johnny Camararie.” When I first saw Moonstruck in 1987, with my Hoboken born-and-raised fiancé, I was about to marry into the kind of warm and loving Italian family where all important decisions are made in the kitchen, which the film depicts so magically. But I was getting cold feet, until Moonstruck illuminated the beauty of my bride-to-be and her family more vividly for me, easing my pre-wedding jitters.
Making sense of my life through the prism of Moonstruck, I’m reminded that the boundary between art and life can sometimes be as transparent as the window of the Italian restaurant where Danny sat. Considering the power of film to heal, repair, and transform our lives, might Aiello’s restaurant-cozy visage, glimpsed fleetingly from the sidewalk, be whispering of a better world to come? At the very least, isn’t he teaching the community something about the value of friendship?
Perhaps Danny will come out soon in a film that creates fresh visions for the possibilities of healing relationships. Not to mention, who conjures up toughness with heart better than Danny Aiello? When it comes to Danny and the rest of us, let’s hope Sinatra had it right when he sang: “The best is yet to come…” – John Bredin (The writer is an English teacher living in Hoboken.)