Crossing Delancey

There are a set of films from the 1980s and 1990s that are very well done comedies about dating or finding one's true love. The best known one is MOONSTRUCK, but others are WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING and this one, CROSSING DELANCEY. Like MOONSTRUCK, CROSSING DELANCEY deals with an ethnic group. Cher's movie was a valentine about Italian Americans. CROSSING DELANCEY is a similar valentine about Jewish Americans in Manhattan.

Izzy (Amy Irving, in her best film part) is pretty happy. She is an independent woman who works in a famous private book shop, gets to be in contact with the leading writers of the day (she tells of speaking to Isaac Bashevits Singer at one point), and has a nice rent controlled apartment near Central Park. But her beloved grandmother Bubbe (Reizl Bozyk) is upset that Izzy is still single. She approaches the local, Lower East Side, matchmaker (Sylvia Miles) to find a groom for her granddaughter. Izzy is appalled at this, but she does come to dinner to meet the young man (Sam - Peter Riegert). He's a businessman (he and his brother run a pickle selling business on Delancey Street). Sam is a smart and nice guy, but Izzy is stand-offish because of her set of modern values.

The title refers to Izzy's assimilated views versus the standards of her grandmother and Sam. She does not want to be associated with old style lifestyles that represent an earlier era. But Sam tells her a story about a friend of his who was forced to buy a new hat when he lost his old cap "Crossing Delancey", and his life was changed was changed as a result (he got engaged in two days). Sam reinforces the story by sending Izzy a new hat (as though to suggest trying something different).

Izzy's state of mind is also confused because she has a sexual interest in a popular novelist named Anton Maas (Jerome Krabbe). Maas is certainly a gifted novelist, with a ready line of colorful patter that causes certain types of women (like Izzy) to swoon. But he is a little self-centered for all that, though Izzy does not notice this for awhile. But she does feel, after getting Sam's gift, that she should do something for him - she tries to set him up with a girlfriend. But she suddenly discovers he is a nice guy, and she begins to wonder if she has made a serious error.

This description of the film is inadequate, especially at it can barely touch the performances of Ms Bozyk (her only film lead role - after a lifetime in Yiddish theater she got this, and proved she should have had many more film performances to her credit), and Sarah Miles as the loud, overbearing, matchmaker Mrs. Hannah Mandlebaum. David Hyde Pierce appears as one of Izzy's fellow employees at the bookstore - an early role for the future Niles Crane. And Rosemary Harris appears as a "Marianne Moore" poet at a soirée, who makes the mistake of trying to patronize Krabbe (in his most sympathetic in the film - he returns the comment with interest). The movie has everything, including a version of a comedy chase (involving a taxicab with an unbelievably bad driver) and moments of hamish philosophy by Bubbe over a bottle of cherry herring. Altogether one perfect romantic comedy.

Izzy (Amy Irving) is a talented bookstore employee in New York City. Although it is a low paying position, she rubs elbows with some of the finest writers in the country, by setting up book talks. Despite her success, she is in her thirties and is not married. Izzy is fine with this but her Jewish grandmother is appalled that her sweet relative does not have a husband. Therefore, grandmother arranges for a matchmaker to search out some candidates for Izzy. The first one is a pickle vendor! What was grandma thinking?

This film, set partly in an old, traditional Jewish neighborhood in Manhattan, is a movie fan's delight. Irving, charming and pretty, sails right through her role with absolute believability. The rest of the cast is just perfect, including an early role for David Hyde Pierce. What a wonder, also, to get a glimpse of a preserved neighborhood, where time moves slowly. Those who adore romantic comedies must not put a viewing of this movie off any longer. Try catching it at the library or video store today.

It might be ten years since last I saw Crossing Delancey. We wandered into the video store tonight and were more than desperate to find just one movie we were willing to take a chance on, and I spotted this gem.

Seriously: this one ages well, like a good wine. It's got only better - by that I mean that after time, one picks up the subtleties even more.

It's just sensational.

The other movie we rented is a Disney action flick. We're waiting to put it in, because we know we are going to be disappointed after this, and we want to savour it a little while more.

That's about the best you can say about any movie.

10 out of 10.

This movie strikes me, even after all this time, as being better than it was given credit for. The slow unfolding of the developing relationship is very well done, the characters are interesting and believable, and the grandma is fantastic. My only complaint - it would be really interesting to see how those two people handled an ongoing relationship. Talk about two worlds coming together -

This is my favorite movie of all time with an unbelievable cast of great character actors. I remember a New York reviewer at the time calling Amy Irving's performance "lukewarm" and I could not disagree more. Irving's performance and character epitomize the thirty-something single New York working woman trying to move up in the world. Irving's character is completely enraptured by the experience of being the book manager of a very prestigious uptown neighborhood book store and falls for the good-looking, European writer who is completely enraptured with himself! Riegert is the nice "pickleman" who any girl knows would make a great husband but the fireworks just don't go off for the girl. Any woman can definitely relate to the dilemma of being attracted to the charming, good-looking rogue but when you get right down to it, it is the everyday "picklemen" who stay true and truly make the world go round.

And I must say that this film captures the city better than any movie I have yet to see complete with crazy singing woman in crowded narrow hot dog joint, midage man struggling to play handball in local park, elderly women learning self-defense at community Y. Classic New York stuff! I could go on and on but do note far out performances by Sylvia Miles as the tacky matchmaker and Rosemary Harris, the great English actress, in a cameo near the end.