"Avalon" remains one of my favorite movies. Its excellent cast, including Joan Plowright, Aidin Quinn, Kevin Pollack, Lou Jacobi, Elizabeth Perkins and Elijah Wood (11 years before he starred in "The Lord of the Rings"), is headed by an outstanding, distinguished and heartbreaking performance by Armin Mueller-Stahl.
Mueller-Stahl plays the central character, Sam Krichinsky, who sees the glory of his youth as a Jewish immigrant from Poland who comes to live in Baltimore, as that glory gradually disintegrates to due family disputes over relatively small but important issues. The once close-knit immigrant Krichinsky family splinters over the years, the second generation changes their names to Kaye and Kirk to be more "American", and even the remaining family units talk less to one another, choosing to watch TV instead.
While this sounds grim, it is filled with humor -- I couldn't help thinking of "Everybody Loves Raymond", especially during the spats between Sam's wife (Plowright) and her daughter-in-law (Perkins). There are scenes that make you laugh while you grimace, such as the turkey-cutting decision by Sam that forever alienates his older brother, played wonderfully by Lou Jacobi.
My own family has gone through these splintering events, and to those of us who are younger, we consider the issues so miniscule that we cannot understand why any brother would stop associating with another over them. But it happened, more than once. Also, members of our family have split angrily over the spelling of our last name, some trying to make it "less German".
My oldest son said this was the saddest movie he had ever seen, and he thought it was excellent.
Of special note is the way director-writer Barry Levinson teams with composer Randy Newman, who previously worked together on "The Natural", to come up with a number of scenes very similar the final scene in "The Natural". And working with them is the great cinematographer Allen Daviau, who also gave us three of Spielberg's earlier best movies, in terms of cinematography: "E.T.", "The Color Purple", and "Empire of the Sun".
Excellent film, sure to tug your heartstrings, if you have feelings for your extended family members.
Mueller-Stahl plays the central character, Sam Krichinsky, who sees the glory of his youth as a Jewish immigrant from Poland who comes to live in Baltimore, as that glory gradually disintegrates to due family disputes over relatively small but important issues. The once close-knit immigrant Krichinsky family splinters over the years, the second generation changes their names to Kaye and Kirk to be more "American", and even the remaining family units talk less to one another, choosing to watch TV instead.
While this sounds grim, it is filled with humor -- I couldn't help thinking of "Everybody Loves Raymond", especially during the spats between Sam's wife (Plowright) and her daughter-in-law (Perkins). There are scenes that make you laugh while you grimace, such as the turkey-cutting decision by Sam that forever alienates his older brother, played wonderfully by Lou Jacobi.
My own family has gone through these splintering events, and to those of us who are younger, we consider the issues so miniscule that we cannot understand why any brother would stop associating with another over them. But it happened, more than once. Also, members of our family have split angrily over the spelling of our last name, some trying to make it "less German".
My oldest son said this was the saddest movie he had ever seen, and he thought it was excellent.
Of special note is the way director-writer Barry Levinson teams with composer Randy Newman, who previously worked together on "The Natural", to come up with a number of scenes very similar the final scene in "The Natural". And working with them is the great cinematographer Allen Daviau, who also gave us three of Spielberg's earlier best movies, in terms of cinematography: "E.T.", "The Color Purple", and "Empire of the Sun".
Excellent film, sure to tug your heartstrings, if you have feelings for your extended family members.