AVALON
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1990 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: A loving portrait of a Jewish family in post-World-War-II Baltimore makes AVALON one of Barry Levinson's best films to date. Levinson has a real talent for dialogue and for creating memorable characters. This is a film to be enjoyed more than once. Rating: +3.
Barry Levinson has made such diverse films as THE NATURAL; GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM; and RAIN MAN. But he chronically returns to his native Baltimore to tell the stories of the people he knew when he was growing up. His first film was the excellent DINER. TIN MEN was set in part in the same Baltimore diner, though the story was a cut below his first film. AVALON is a very different Baltimore story and rivals THE NATURAL as Levinson's best work. AVALON follows the fortunes of an immigrant Jewish family in the years following World War II. Central to the story is a grandfather- grandson relationship, very probably based on Levinson's relationship with his own grandfather. The portrait of the family is at once realistic and endearing. This is not so much a story with a single conflict that is resolved in the end, but more a chronicle told in episodes.
As the film opens, we are in the mind and memory of Sam Krichinsky as he is remembering and relating to his grandchildren how he came to the United States in 1914 and settled in the beautiful city of Baltimore. He arrived on July 4th and he is telling the story before dinner on Thanksgiving. As the family history progresses, it returns again and again to what the family was doing on those two holidays. The story is seen very much through the eyes of young Michael Kaye, Sam's grandson. Levinson's Baltimore films all have excellent dialogue which is at the same time believable and surprisingly entertaining. Just simple family chit-chat in Levinson's hands becomes both revealing and endearing. Michael's father Jules is a salesman who is mugged in front of Michael. To keep Jules entertained as he is recovering his cousin buys the family's first television set. This leads to a whole new career of selling first televisions, then appliances at discount. The success brings tragedy--at least as far as Michael is concerned: the family moves to the suburbs. Soon conflicts arise that seem serious to the family, but which clearly seem petty and minor to the viewer.
Armin Mueller-Stahl (who played a suspected Nazi in THE MUSIC BOX) plays the patriarchal Sam Krichinsky. His son Jules is played by Aidan Quinn. And Jules's son Michael is played by Elijah Wood. Elizabeth Perkins and Joan Plowright help to round out the cast in this loving scrapbook of the life of a family. This is certainly one of the most moving and best films this year. I give it a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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