Diagonaldi Very well executed

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Danusha_Goska Save Send Delete "Crossing Delancey" is a heartwarming romantic comedy, but it's so much more than that. It's a masterpiece in miniature, one of those miraculous movies that gets everything right: it's beautiful to look at, pure pleasure to watch, a moment-in-amber time capsule of a place, time, and community; it's an artistic success; it's deep, it's funny, and it makes you feel good. "Crossing Delancey" isn't "War and Peace," it's a small story about one woman and her one decision, but faithfulness to tiny details results in depth.The 1980s Manhattan of Isabelle, (Amy Irving) a thirty-something, well-educated, underemployed single Jewish woman, is so faithfully recreated the film feels like a well-made documentary. A rabbi who is on screen for mere moments is so believable I googled the actor to find out if he was a real rabbi. There is a kid selling used books on the sidewalk who is so convincing as a kid selling used books I wondered if he weren't some merchant they just found in his street-side stall and immediately inserted into the movie.Jeroen Krabbe as arrogant author Anton Maes is so believable I want to reach through the screen and smack him. Just one scene, a literary soiree where Krabbe glares at a poetess as she condescendingly advises him to write something in his native language is worth the price of admission. Krabbe's face is partly obscured by his hand; all you see are his eyes. Their murderous look is as mesmerizing as a venomous snake.Peter Riegert packs what could have been a dreary role – that of a pickle salesman – with fascination, subtle intelligence, and heart. Every character is perfectly cast; every performance is pitch perfect; everyone is the embodiment of the type of person a real Isabelle would have met in her real life.When I do rewatch this movie, I have to watch it over and over, just to cherish every little morsel: the Jamaican cabbie, the steam room anecdote, the heavily made-up street singer who enters a hot dog shop and sings "One Enchanted Evening" with an oracle's intensity, the delivery of the line, "four men and a cabbage;" even just the names of minor characters, "Cecilia Monk" "Pauline Swift" – and their hairdos – are to be savored.The sets are equally, painstakingly, perfect. Just the signage alone: "A joke and a pickle for only a nickel," and "Schapiro's: the wine you can almost cut with a knife," and, in Isabella's bookstore, the sign for "cashier" is shot so that it looks like "hier," French for "yesterday," appropriate for a movie focused on the past and the bittersweet passage of time.Isabelle lives in available-male-shortage Manhattan. She's nagged by loneliness, her grandmother, and her biological clock. She sleeps with a married, handsome neighbor who offers her nothing but one-night stands. She yearns for a glamorous author she's met at the bookstore where she works.Her grandmother fixes her up with a "pickle man," and Isabelle twists and turns for the rest of the film, weighing the advantages of a solid guy who might treat her lovingly, versus the attractions of a glamorous novelist who excites her. Isabelle's struggle is intimate and unique, played out in the microcosms of the formerly Yiddish Lower East Side and suave uptown Manhattan literati, but it's universal, as well. Dreamers everywhere must calculate whether to invest in the near, solid and familiar, or risk everything with the attractive and impossible-to-reach shooting star, and must face those moments when what had seemed attractive suddenly looks toxic, and what had seemed common suddenly reveals its hidden beauties.

ulalame I've been watching a lot of romantic comedies lately, and they all have their conceits. This one is by nature dated, as the lower east side of Manhattan's old Jewish community has largely been displaced by gentrification. I lived in NYC in the 1980s, and it was fun seeing film of communities that have largely been lost since then.That said, while I liked this film, it felt like a take on Hello! Dolly or the like. It was a well-acted, charming romantic comedy with a predictable plot. Girl goes after guy-out-of-her-class, while rejecting perfectly nice guy in her class. Upper class guy comes after her for shallow reasons, and she realizes the value of blue collar guy. The movie or the plot never really made clear why the self-confident and satisfied mid-thirties woman would abandon her lifestyle for the "old-school" guy, especially when the writer "wanted her" albeit for the wrong reasons. In a way, it reeked of the "desperation" that men tried to put on 30-something women in the late 1980s, where any "nice" guy was better than none, and a pretty 34-year-old woman with a career should be happy to end up with the "pickle guy," no matter what her other options might hold. This, even though the writer and director were women.I probably would have rated it a 6.5 if that was an option, as it's a decent flick, for acting, writing and dialogue, and because of the charm of the pre-gentrification NYC settings. But it's certainly dated, almost as if it were out of the 1950s rather than the late-1980s.

IForgotMyMantra 'Crossing Delancey' isn't an easy movie to discuss. On the one hand, it's a rather banal romantic comedy without real surprise. But on the other, it's something else entirely and worth seeking out. I'm not even quite able to identify what it is that makes it such a rewarding movie - Amy Irving in the central performance, is fine and certainly competent but it's not a big driving performance. I think in some ways, that adds to the character of Izzy - we're not seeing a big star performance, instead it's something more interesting and complex. Irving as Izzy often seems aloof (at least on the surface) and not wholly interesting as a bigger star may seem but I think that adds some realism (how many times have you seen a movie with a real movie star with off the wall charisma playing a timid mouse and found it wildly unconvincing?). That all adds to the movie's appeal.New York is a secondary character. It's not the gentrified areas you might see now, and because of that there's more charm. There are the random, perhaps crazy people one might see while in a store, as Izzy encounters. It's not a flashy touch, but it adds some kooky realism to the film. There's the contrast between uptown and downtown areas, the restaurants and the music. It's all a very vibrant, rich setting.This is a special movie, and still, it's hard to explain why. The setting, the performances, the script and the characters all gel superbly.Watch out for David Hyde Pierce in a bit part.

ophelia_kayaking I first watched this film one night at about 1:00 a.m. after coming home from a evening out on the town. I sat down to unwind from the night. Crossing Delancey was one of my choices, and since I have a fondness for Manhattan, at the very least, the scenery would be a pleasure. I was quickly engrossed in Issy's love of books as well as the eclectic personalities at 'New Day Books'. Issy's life, though full of prominent authors and publishers, was unfulfilled which leads to Issy's interest in writer Anton Maes. Jeroen Krabbe plays well the author with the sugary sweet drippings of poetry he offers Issy to keep her handy. It works well. Issy's grandmother offers an endearing kindness to the plot, always looking to improve Issy's life in ways Issy may not be aware are wanting. Bubbie is fragile, yet stealthy in her quest to find Issy a mate, much to Issy's protest. Enter Sam Posner. Polite and grounded, but lacking spark at first glance. He is introduced to the plot by an overly chatty matchmaker. It didn't take long for me to warm to Sam. He was a man who knew who he was, and was proud of his life, however unappealing it may seem to others. (There is a sweet scene where Sam helps Bubbie by washing the windows. It's clear he is getting frustrated, but maintains his calm, all the while knowing she is up to something.) Bubbie continues to encourage Sam though Issy poo-poo's the idea of dating a man who sells pickles. I watched as Sam is put into scenarios where he could have easily taken a different attitude, but chooses to respond with dignity. Near the end of the film, while Issy is still unconvinced he would be a good catch, I was losing my heart to him. There is a scene where Sam peeks through a window with an expression that I can't quite explain. To this day, when I see that scene, I fall in love with him all over again. In the end, it's not about whether Issy 'get's the guy'. It's about allowing people to reveal their true selves to us. (At least it was for me.) There are some Sams in the world that, thankfully, don't live only in the movies.