LOST IN YONKERS
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Two boys have to spend the summer of
1942 with their steel-willed grandmother and out-to-lunch
aunt in Neil Simon's LOST IN YONKERS. While there is some of
the old Simon whimsey here, there is also some real human
drama without sugar-coating. This play won a Pulitzer Prize
and may well be one of the best films of the year. Rating:
+2 (-4 to +4).
Neil Simon built his reputation on warm, whimsical comedies with occasional pieces of real drama mixed in, as long as they do not threaten too much to spoil the play or movie-goer's day. LOST IN YONKERS is not typical Simon. There is some whimsey here, certainly, but there is also some tragedy and some authentic human pain. A lot of people may be disappointed by LOST IN YONKERS; I certainly was not.
It is the summer of 1942 and Eddie Kurnitz, a widower, needs to have someplace to leave his two sons Jay and Arty (played by Brad Stoll and Mike Damus) so that he can make some money to pay his debts. Reluctantly he's decided to leave them with his mother, the family matriarch. Grandma Kurnitz (played by Irene Worth) loves nobody and is herself unloved. Her family has always lived in fear of her and it has never really functioned as a family. This is the story of the boys and that summer, but even more, this is the story of the boy's Aunt Bella, who lives with her mother. Aunt Bella has always seemed a little out-to-lunch to the boys (and everybody else), and the idea of spending a summer with both the aunt and the grandmother is less than promising for Arty and Jay. This is the story of how the boys come to love their aunt and understand their grandmother, but the telling is not pat. Understanding does not always bring forgiveness. While there is hope by the end of this story, there is also some disappointment.
Receiving top billing is Richard Dreyfus as the boys' uncle who is fooling around on the shady side of the law. He has double-crossed a flashy hood and is using his mother's house to hide out in temporarily. While he gives a little panache to his role and some action to the film, his part is really mostly distraction from the main plotline. In the end he is just there to show one more way Grandma Kurnitz's personality has damaged the lives of his children. I may be one of the few people in the world who was not bowled over by Mercedes Ruehl in THE FISHER KING, but LOST IN YONKERS is a good film and it is mostly due to her. She has already won a Tony Award for her role as Aunt Bella on Broadway and she may get an Oscar nomination.
Martha Coolidge's direction is engaging and the feel of 1942 is well conveyed, considering that it depends mostly on one house, a street, and a candy shop. Critical comment seems very mixed on LOST IN YONKERS, but I am inclined to think it is because it has been so long since we have seen real human drama on the screen that we may have forgotten how to react to it. I give LOST IN YONKERS a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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