CROSSING DELANCY
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1988 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Well-above-average comedy/drama reminiscent of MOONSTRUCK but set in the Jewish community of Manhattan. Some nice characterizations in this story of a 33-year-old career woman's relationships with two men. Rating: +2.
It has been a good long while since my wife and I have found ourselves to be the youngest people in an audience, but we did with CROSSING DELANCY and that in itself is a testimonial that the filmmaker must be doing something right. And she is. Joan Micklin Silver has directed a warm, human sort of comedy that is at least comparable to MOONSTRUCK and at least in some ways better.
Isabelle Grossman (played by Amy Irving) is 33 and has a fulfilling career. Working in a very literary bookstore. She arranges for public readings by very good authors, she runs book discussion groups, she lies to her grandmother that she does not mind being single, and she knows many important people in the publishing field. Working hard at her job, it is late at night before she gets back to her big, empty apartment. Knowing many major literary figures, perhaps some day she will have a lasting relationship with one or perhaps even marry one. Her closest relative, her grandmother, calls in a matchmaker for Isabelle, much to Isabelle's embarrassment. And who does the matchmaker suggest? A pickle salesman, Sam Posner (played by Peter Riegart of ANIMAL HOUSE and LOCAL HERO). Well, he is sort of a nice guy, he has a good sense of humor, he obviously would like very much to get to know Isabelle, he even can make sound romantic his reasons for letting a matchmaker bring him together with Isabelle. But he is just a pickle salesman after all, and Isabelle really has her eye on a tall, handsome Dutch author, Anton Maes (played by Jeroen Krabbe). Deep down, Isabelle knows that Maes will never have time for her and that he really is not as great a writer as many think him to be. But he certainly seems like a better catch than a pickle salesman. If only she can find a good way to brush off Sam without feeling too guilty.
Based on the 1985 play by Susan Sandler has a terrific character portraits. Bubbie (i.e., Grandmother) Kantor (played by Reizl Bozyk) is a wonderful combination of endearing and exasperating. The matchmaker (played by Sylvia Miles) fits the stereotype of the pushy, obnoxious matchmaker, but then what sort of person becomes a matchmaker anyway? Isabelle herself is a little flat as a character and it takes her a long time to realize what the audience knew long before.
CROSSING DELANCY has some totally superfluous revealing clothing and explicit sexual language, but the MPAA double-crossed the film and still gave it a PG. Do not confuse it with a children's film. Rate it +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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