Joe Pesci makes a harrowing movie comeback in 'Day of the Fight': 'It breaks my heart'

Joe Pesci is back in the ring.

Nearly 45 years after “Raging Bull,” the Oscar winner is making his return to acting in a very different kind of boxing movie: “Day of the Fight” (in theaters Friday in many major cities), an understated drama about a onetime world champion named Mikey (Michael Pitt), who’s searching for redemption after a tragic drunk-driving accident landed him in prison.

Mikey makes amends with his ex-wife (Nicolette Robinson) and former trainer (Ron Perlman), and goes to a nursing home to visit his musician father (Pesci), who has Alzheimer’s. He achingly confronts his dad about decades of abuse and neglect, although is sadly only met with blank stares and quivering hands.

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It's a devastating, entirely wordless performance from Pesci, 81, who last appeared on the big screen in Martin Scorsese’s elegiac mob drama “The Irishman” in 2019. The role was written specifically for Pesci by “Day of the Fight” director Jack Huston, who knew the film wouldn’t get financed without a well-known name. So, he aimed high and pitched the story to the actor’s longtime producing partner, Jai Stefan.

“He said, ‘Kid, you’re mad. Joe says no to everything, but I’ll give it a shot,’ ” Huston recalls. To his relief, Pesci responded to the script, and suggested they meet for martinis to discuss the project.

“Getting Joe was landing the white whale,” Huston says. “The film wouldn’t have happened without him. I pretty much owe him everything.”

Joe Pesci will break your heart with no dialogue (and a jazz song) in new movie

Huston, 42, is an actor-turned-first-time filmmaker, and was understandably intimidated about directing the “Goodfellas” icon. But Pesci quickly put him at ease: The Hollywood veteran consulted a neurologist before shooting, in order to better capture the specific mannerisms of a dementia patient. Huston opened up to Pesci about his estranged father, and Pesci told Huston about his relationship with his mom as she was dying, which helped give nuance to the movie’s complex parent-child dynamic.

“There was a really beautiful respect that went both ways,” Huston says. “He was a dream to work with; it’s one of those moments where you’re just capturing magic.”

Huston also drew from his own experience watching his grandmother suffer from early onset dementia. “Sometimes you’d put music on for her, and it would pull her back in the room and give her these moments of lucidity,” he recalls.

That wound up inspiring one of the movie’s most gut-wrenching moments: Before Mikey leaves the nursing home, he puts on one of his father’s old vinyl records; slowly, Pesci’s eyes light up with recognition as they also fill with tears.

The song is a cover of Jimmy Scott’s jazz standard “If I Ever Lost You,” which Pesci recorded for his 2019 album “Still Singing.”

Pesci’s rendition, which plays in the film, is “the most beautiful thing you’ve ever heard,” Huston says. “It breaks my heart just thinking about that scene. At that moment, you can see the entire history flooding back to him, and we know that he loved his son. And he knows that Mikey loved him, too.”

'Day of the Fight' is now part of Jack Huston's family legacy

“Day of the Fight” was emotional for Huston in other ways, too. The “Boardwalk Empire” actor comes from a long line of movie royalty: His aunt is actress Anjelica Huston (“Prizzi’s Honor”), and his grandfather was two-time Oscar winner John Huston (“The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”). Huston cast his son, Cypress, to play a young Mikey in this movie as well.

“I realized when I was on the set that he’s actually the fifth generation of my family on screen,” Huston says. “There’s such beauty in coming from a family of storytellers. I never felt like a shadow – I’ve had the grace of God to look up to these people, who have only been beacons of support. It’s a very lucky thing.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joe Pesci's new movie 'Day of the Fight' isn't a speaking role. Why?