Crossing Delancey (1988)

A genuine Lost-Treasure for movie fans of Romantic-comedy = "Crossing Delancey" (circa1988) is authentically heartfelt, subtle & realistic in presentation and refreshingly free of cliché or artifice.  Directed by the abundantly gifted but perplexingly underrated Joan Micklin Silver who made the incredibly unique film about the early Jewish immigrant experience in NYC called "Hester-Street" With "Crossing Delancey" Micklin-Silver updates her chosen milieu to Late-1980's NYC = populated by an endlessly intriguing mix of old-World East-European culture inexorably transformed/transforming into the modern-assimilated artistic-intellectual enclave populated by ambitious but still deeply-sensitive Souls like the beautiful 'Isabelle Grossman' (portrayed by equally beautiful Amy Irving, in one of her finest film roles)*spoiler-alert* Isabelle's bubbie/Grandma 'Ida' (Reizl Bozyk with extensive Yiddish theater-background) is worried-sick that her granddaughter is still unmarried at the ripe old-age of 33, and possibly heading-down the path of permanent 'spinster-status' unless a pro-active action-plan & intervention is implemented immediately. Enter 'matchmaker' extraordinaire Hannah Mandlebaum (the absolutely indescribable Sylvia Miles) who finds Isabelle a match-made (perhaps fermented) in Heaven, with pickle entrepreneur Sam Posner (down-to-Earth, unpretentious Peter Riegert)Sam is most certainly an all-round 'good-guy' but Isabelle can't seem to reconcile the fact that her irrepressible 'dreams' both personally & professionally have up to now hovered amidst the rarefied-air of mingling with celebrated NYC intellectual literati and noteworthy authors.  Isabelle has spent much of her waking-hours endlessly hosting poetry-readings, book signings and other promotional events in which the literary-minded have flocked, and in fact Isabelle works directly for one of the oldest, most hallowed bookstores/ booksellers in NYC, affording her ample opportunity to meet & greet successful writers on a regular basis. One such individual that catches Isabelle's attention early on is the renowned poet-novelist Anton Maes (played by Jeroen Krabbé) who is married but seems utterly lonely & perpetually angst-ridden nonetheless.Isabelle's fascination with those gifted few who successfully apply pen-to-paper (while making a good living at it) most definitely leads her down a few blind-alleys. Not fully able to 'see' the 'pickle-man' as the promising long-term prospect that he may very well prove to be.  At one point Isabelle even sets the 'pickle-man' up with her outgoing garrulous friend Marylin Cohen (played by straight-talking Suzy Roche of the vocal-group the 'Roches'  who contributed a number of excellent songs for this movie!)Joan Micklin-Silver's "Crossing Delancey" reflects an authentic film and ultimately timeless-Tale (adapted by Susan Sandler from her original stage play of the same-name) about people searching for genuine meaning & authentic identity along with choosing (hopefully wisely) who they are willing to spend the rest of their natural lives with."Crossing-Delancey" is also most certainly a near perfect romantic-comedy that seems infused with boundless good-humor, great thespian performances and unpretentiously profound insights  =  reflecting a genuine 'Lost-treasure' and priceless re-discovery for movie fans particularly of the Romantic-comedy variety.

I hate romantic comedies, sports movies, horror, and adventure; so I only see the best and this is one of the best movies I've ever seen.In romantic comedies it rates right up there with Annie Hall; As Good as it Gets; Sleepless in Seattle; and Working Girl.Most of the romantic comedies suffer from being a repeat of another better movie. The phrase stop if you've seen this before occurs during the trailer advertisement on TV that I mute as soon as I can. This movie is different.This movie has a simple story to tell, and it tells it well. There's no fluff or filler just to take up time.It's a gut wrenching view of the snobbery we feel and have felt put upon us. The movie looks at ourselves through the eyes of another. I recognized myself and my motivations.The characters are charming and scheming without being over the top. The movie has one other attribute that it shares with excellent movies, it seems over too fast.

I've been watching a lot of romantic comedies lately, and they all have their conceits. This one is by nature dated, as the lower east side of Manhattan's old Jewish community has largely been displaced by gentrification. I lived in NYC in the 1980s, and it was fun seeing film of communities that have largely been lost since then.That said, while I liked this film, it felt like a take on Hello! Dolly or the like. It was a well-acted, charming romantic comedy with a predictable plot. Girl goes after guy-out-of-her-class, while rejecting perfectly nice guy in her class. Upper class guy comes after her for shallow reasons, and she realizes the value of blue collar guy. The movie or the plot never really made clear why the self-confident and satisfied mid-thirties woman would abandon her lifestyle for the "old-school" guy, especially when the writer "wanted her" albeit for the wrong reasons. In a way, it reeked of the "desperation" that men tried to put on 30-something women in the late 1980s, where any "nice" guy was better than none, and a pretty 34-year-old woman with a career should be happy to end up with the "pickle guy," no matter what her other options might hold. This, even though the writer and director were women.I probably would have rated it a 6.5 if that was an option, as it's a decent flick, for acting, writing and dialogue, and because of the charm of the pre-gentrification NYC settings. But it's certainly dated, almost as if it were out of the 1950s rather than the late-1980s.

If you come to this deadpan, soft touch romantic comedy with your expectations in check you might enjoy it's modest pleasures. Amy Irving is assured and winning in the lead; but there is a remote quality to the character we never quite warm to. When She realizes She is behaving real stupidly, we have been so far ahead of her for so long we don't quite buy it. For someone who loves language and books; She never has a great deal to say. The rest of the cast all do a fine job, as does folk rock legend Suzy Roche in her as of yet only movie. It is unfortunate Silver has not gotten a chance to do more; She has a real nice touch with comedy. This came through even in her minor "Big Girls Don't Cry." Along with Betty Thomas, She deserved more chances and better scripts.