Finding Nino ... In Grand Rapids

The Passion of the Christ has come and gone. So has Spider-Man 2. But unless you live in western Michigan, you've probably never heard of this year's longest-running movie, which opened way back on Dec. 5, 2003. That's because Uncle Nino, a sentimental tale starring Joe Mantegna and Anne Archer as a stressed-out couple emotionally disconnected from their kids and each other, is playing at only one theater — in Grand Rapids. What began as a two-week engagement has turned into the longest test-marketing of a film in U.S. history. Director Bob Shallcross, who wrote the screenplay for the peewee football epic Little Giants, picked this tryout location in part because he thought the conservative burg would appreciate Nino's homespun message about savoring life's simple pleasures, and in part because that's where he found a theater exec willing to give the $3 million film some screen time. No one expected that the crowds would keep coming.

But in an unscripted, feel-good sequel, Grand Rapidians rallied around the little indie and came to embrace the actor who plays the title role of an eccentric uncle from Italy. With money raised by Nino's Nieces and Nephews, a grass-roots group that includes some 900 fans, the actor Pierrino Mascarino (whose credits include Seinfeld and Murder, She Wrote) flew in from L.A. to raise the profile of the movie even more in the city's schools, churches and senior centers. "Our goal was to see if all of Grand Rapids would love it as much as we did," says Billie Sue Berends, a community college instructor who has seen Nino more than 50 times. Having charmed Grand Rapids citizens, Nino at long last is scheduled to open nationwide, in February. Says co-star Archer: "This is a movie for the people who put Bush back into office." Mantegna's mom Mary Ann told Shallcross she was delighted for a different reason: "I enjoy any movie where my son doesn't get whacked."