Lost in Yonkers (1993)

It's the summer of 1942. Eddie Kurnitz just lost his wife and drives his two boys to live with their grandma (Irene Worth) and unstable childlike aunt Bella (Mercedes Ruehl) in Yonkers while he goes on the road for a job. Grandma owns a candy store but she's a stern woman. She has a boyfriend named Johnny (David Strathairn) who is also slow. They need $5k to open a restaurant and Bella tells the boys that grandma has hidden a large sum somewhere. The boys go sneaking around trying to find it. Uncle Louie Kurnitz (Richard Dreyfuss) is a bagman and henchman. He comes home one night to hide out from gangster Hollywood Harry. He has a black bag which he tells the boys not to touch.The boys aren't the most charismatic. The problem is that the movie needs to be seen through their eyes. It has to be their movie. The boys are more annoying sneaky money-grubbing brats than adorable kids. Mercedes is wonderful. She's the standout performance and her character is the heart of the movie. The movie is a little quirky but there is nothing funny about it. Director Martha Coolidge isn't able to inject much style into the movie. The movie needs a good soundtrack from the era.

Go to sleep instead.What a slow moving movie that offers little to no entertainment.Why did I bother to get this? I don't know...I struggled to watch this all the way through to the end.I must have turned this on 7 or 8 times to continue watching it.Even Richard Drefuss whom I find has great charisma fails to bring to light any interest in this plot.It's slow and maybe if you were born in the 1940's this might be of interest, but I think this is so dramatically slow that it's bad just for being slow and not bad - if that makes any sense to you.I'm glad that I had cable TV, otherwise I would have been really bored on a dismal Saturday and Sunday.

"Lost In Yonkers" was a nice blend of comedy and drama. Until watching it for the second time, I didn't even recognize Richard Dreyfuss to be the 'Uncle Louie' character, but I did know him by his voice. He played QUITE a character: An extremely stylish, offbeat criminal with a sense of humor. The main character, 'Bella', was 'slow', according to her domineering mother. She was a delightful young woman who was loved by her nephews, siblings, and all those who knew her. Bella was ready to have a life on her own--the problem being--her Mom.I really enjoyed this nostalgic, WWII era, movie. I recommend it to audiences of all ages.

The film itself is a fairly good one. It can be touching at times and Bella is well done as is Grandma. (of course these are actors that did them in the play.) I don't like how Louie is done at all, just seems out of place. Also, the boys are the core of the play but not in the movie. They are the comic relief for some very heavy drama and the play is more about how they deal with the situation rather than how the family comes together at the end. I didn't really get the sense that they were brothers either. The movie is good, but read or see the play for a better experience