Brighton Beach Memoirs Reviews

The time is 1937, and Eugene (Silverman) is a teenager living in the Coney Island area of Brighton Beach with his parents (Danner and Dishy), older brother Stanley (Drillinger), widowed aunt Blanche (Ivey) and her two daughters, Laurie (Glick) and Nora (Waltz). This septet raises endless possibilities for interplay, but the focus throughout is on Eugene and his twin passions: baseball and women. Unfortunately, there is no real direction to this story--just a series of incidents, a lot of arguing, and many fewer laughs than we have come to expect from writer Simon. It was with this play and screenplay, however, that Simon crossed into new territory, forgoing the easy one-liner for a combination of pathos and gentle, heartfelt humor. Director Saks, who won a Tony for his stage direction, works in his typically fish-out-of-water fashion here, trying to put some air into a stagebound work, but much of the spontaneity of the theater version seems to have been supplanted by the mechanics of moviemaking. The acting by a very talented cast is generally quite good, even if Danner doesn't convince as an old-fashioned Jewish mother type. More of a nostalgic piece than a story, the film shows an attention to the specifics of the culture on display which has genuine if modest appeal.