It’s the Star Power of the Likes of Amy Irving and Peter Riegert That Makes ‘Crossing Delancey’ Memorable

Listening to the actor Peter Riegert tell it, his role in Joan Micklin Silver’s “Crossing Delancey” (1988) resulted in his being propositioned by more women than at any other point in his life. Mr. Riegert’s character was unpretentious, generous, kind, and funny, and mothers and daughters and grandmothers couldn’t help themselves: What wasn’t to love about Sam the pickle man? This says more about Mr. Riegert than it does about his scandalously underwritten character. Although Sam Posner comes with a backstory, it’s pretty bare bones: The pickle man inherited the business from his father, washes his hands with vanilla and milk to rid himself of the odor of vinegar, and exhibits little in the way of an inner life. Sam is manipulated by the movie’s main players because the story demands it of him. He’s a cog in director Silver’s machine — or, rather, Susan Sandler’s screenplay. Ms. Sandler based the film on her play of the same name, and it isn’t without its sharp observations and sly asides. Those old enough to have frequented Manhattan in the 1980s will pick up on social cues and cultural bromides that ring true to the era. That the story is explicitly ethnic — “Crossing Delancey” is a story about Jewish life and aspiration — only partially energizes its rom-com conventions. What makes the movie memorable is star power.That brings us back to Mr. Riegert. Prior to his breakout role as Boon in John Landis’s “Animal House” (1978), Mr. Riegert was a creature of the stage, appearing in Broadway and off-Broadway productions including “Dance With Me” and “Sexual Perversity of Chicago.” As the only member of Delta House who possessed anything close to a moral compass, Mr. Riegert set himself up for movie roles that relied on an abiding humility, a speck of innocence, and a deft way with a wisecrack. “Crossing Delancey” was, in so many words, a mass-media confirmation of Mr. Riegert’s menschlichkeit.Reizl Bozyk, Amy Irving, and Sylvia Miles in ‘Crossing Delancey’ (1988). Via the Criterion Collection“Crossing Delancey” is being released on Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection and, more than anything else, this selection points to how even the most stringent cineastes are capable of being mushballs. How much does Silver’s picture elaborate upon the Collection’s mission of “publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world”? “Crossing Delancey” is a likable dollop of schmaltz, sure, but the story and characters only marginally transcend their standard-issue sitcom trappings — which definitely includes the supporting cast, not least Reizl Bozyk and Sylvia Miles. Oy, those yentas.The chief rub of the plot is class. Thirty-something Isabelle Grossman (Amy Irving) works in a homey, independent bookstore that caters to the intellectual crowd. Among those she regularly rubs elbows with, and is seriously crushing on, is a novelist, Anton Maes (Jeroen Krabbé). All the while, her bubbe (Bozyk) is working in cahoots with a matchmaker, Hannah Mandelbaum (a scene-eviscerating Miles), to find a good man for Isabelle. Will she settle for a guy who is the furthest thing from a pretentious, self-centered littérateur?That we know the answer to the question doesn’t necessarily put a damper on the proceedings, but there have been less mechanical variations of the boy-meets-girl dynamic. But then, of course, there’s the girl: Ms. Irving proved her mettle as a film actor by imbuing Isabelle with just the right measures of naivete and world weariness, reticence, and surety. With her grand shock of curly hair and chiseled features, the actress brings an almost sculptural dynamism to this most winsome of ingenues. As the curatorial staff at the Criterion Collection might tell you, “Crossing Delancey” is an entertainment whose shortcomings are easy to forgive and easier to enjoy.

It’s the Star Power of the Likes of Amy Irving and Peter Riegert That Makes ‘Crossing Delancey’ Memorable

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