A wise, aging Italian peasant (Pierrino Mascarino) who knows barely any English comes to America for the first time to visit his grown nephew (Joe Mantegna), bringing light and life into the man’s humdrum suburban family and restoring their best impulses. I know how mawkish this sounds, but writer-director Robert Shallcross believes in it so passionately that he came close to convincing me too. I even enjoyed the rock number that Uncle Nino plays on the fiddle with his nephew’s garage band. With Anne Archer, Trevor Morgan, and Gina Mantegna. G, 93 min. (JR)