Main Cast: Armin Mueller-Stahl, Eve Gordon, Aidan Quinn, Elizabeth Perkins, Lou Jacobi, Leo L. Fuchs, Joan Plowright, Elijah Wood
Release Year: 1990
Country: US
Run Time: 126 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
The third of director Barry Levinson's autobiographical "Baltimore Trilogy" (the first two entries were Diner and Tin Men), Avalon covers nearly forty years in the lives of an immigrant Jewish family. Sam Krichinsky (Armin Mueller-Stahl) emigrates to Baltimore in 1914, where Sam's brothers Gabriel (Lou Jacobi), Hymie (Leo L. Fuchs), and Nathan (Israel Rubinek) are awaiting his arrival. By and by, Sam meets his future wife, Eva (Joan Plowright). With the introduction of the Krichinsky's grown son Jules (Aidan Quinn), the film ventures into culture-clash country. Unwilling to become a manual laborer like his dad, Jules opts for the life of a door-to-door salesman. Eventually, he teams with his cousin Izzy (Kevin Pollak) to open the first TV store in Baltimore. Thereafter, the disintegration of the Krichinsky family is paralleled by the rise of TV's omnipresence in the American home. Avalon's elegiac and melancholy effect is underlined by Randy Newman's soulful musical score. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Barry Levinson's sentimental family saga is an engaging and affecting film, particularly in its sense of comic detail, but is less persuasive in its overall design. The film covers half a century in the life of the Krichinsky's, a family of Russian immigrants, from their arrival in Baltimore in 1914. Levinson, who began his life in show business and a stand-up comic before becoming a comedy writer, and eventually a director, reminds one of the kind of genial uncle who dissolves tense moments at family gatherings with a joke. This often applies to his approach to the film, in which members of the extended Krichinsky family are more likely to become entangled in some comic byplay involving the movie Stagecoach (1939), than to have a real fight. And even their squabbles are more a ritualized form of communication than evidence of real hostility. Given the personal nature of the material, one understands the director's desire to put a golden halo over these characters, but one guesses that the reality of the lives of these struggling immigrants was more tension-filled than he's willing to acknowledge. Levinson's ambivalence about the arrival of television, and a sense of the double-edged nature of assimilation are touched on by the director rather than explored.Armin Mueller-Stahl is superb as the focal character of the immigrant generation, one who reflects the melancholy of the diaspora of the family from the city to the suburbs after WWII. Aidan Quinn as his ambitious son Jules, and Elizabeth Perkins as Jules' wife Anne are also excellent as a couple trying to live their lives while coping with the demands of an older generation. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Israel Rubinek - Nathan Krichinsky; Kevin Pollak - Izzy Kirk; Grant Gelt - Teddy Kirk; Jesse Adelman - Miscellaneous Family Member; Brenda Alford - Night Club Singer; Steve Aronson - Moving Man; Rachel Aviva - Elka; Judy Bach - Miscellaneous Family Member; Anna Bergman - Alice as a Young Woman; Mina Bern - Alice Krichinsky; Alisa Bernstein - Miscellaneous Family Member; Kevin Blum - Young Jules; Eva Cohen - Miscellaneous Family Member; Michael David Edelstein - Gabriel as a Young Man; Ronald Guttman - Simka; Bernard Hiller - Hymie as a Young Man; Dawne Hindle - Eva as a Young Woman; Mindy Loren Isenstein - Mindy Kirk; Thomas Joy - Country Club Singer; Neil Kirk - Herbie; Michael Krauss - Sam as a Young Man; Mary Lechter - Faye as a Young Woman; Christopher James Lekas - Sam, Michael's Son; Shifra Lerer - Nellie Krichinsky; Josh Lessner - Miscellaneous Family Member; Herb Levison - Rabbi at Funeral; Barbara Morris - Mollie as a Young Woman; Christine Mosere - Nellie as a Young Woman; Alvin Myerovich - The Father; Miles A. Perman - Gas Attendant; Ava Eileen Quinn - David as a Baby; Paul Quinn - K & K Employee; Moishe Rosenfeld - William as a Young Man; Frania Rubinek - Faye Krichinsky; Brian Shait - Nathan as a Young Man; Samantha Shenk - Miscellaneous Family Member; Brian Sher - Country Club Page; Patty Sherman - Miscellaneous Family Member; Irv Stein - Miscellaneous Family Member; Ralph Tabakin - Principal Dunn; Frank Tamburo - Mugger; David Thornhill - David, age 8 Months; Sylvia Weinberg - Mrs. Parkes; Thelma Weiner - Miscellaneous Family Member; Tom Wood - Michael as an Adult; Beatrice Yoffe - Nursing Home Receptionist; Jordan Young - David, age 10; Robert Zalkind - Miscellaneous Family Member; James A. Zemarel - Supper Club Singer; Tammy Walker - Camera Girl; Ellen Chenoweth; David Long - TV Commercial Director; Pat Flynn - Fire Chief
Credit
Fred Hole - Art Director, Ed Richardson - Art Director, Charles James Newirth - Associate Producer, Marie Rowe - Associate Producer, Ellen Chenoweth - Casting, Mark Johnson - Co-producer, Barry Levinson - Co-producer, Gloria Gresham - Costume Designer, Christine Larson - First Assistant Director, Barry Levinson - Director, Stu Linder - Editor, Randy Newman - Composer (Music Score), Allan Mason - Musical Direction/Supervision, Irving Buchman - Makeup, Paul Gebbia - Makeup, Freddie Cooper - Camera Operator, Peter Norman - Camera Operator, Norman Reynolds - Production Designer, Allen Daviau - Cinematographer, Peter Norman - Cinematographer, Charles James Newirth - Production Manager, Linda de Scenna - Set Designer, Bari Dreiband-Burman - Special Effects, Thomas R. Burman - Special Effects, Allen Hall - Special Effects, Willie D. Burton - Sound/Sound Designer, Joel Kramer - Stunts, Barry Levinson - Screenwriter
Although the Krichinsky family depicted is obviously Jewish, this is never made explicit in the film. For example, a TV is given as a "holiday" gift. Independence Day and Thanksgiving are depicted as significant moments in the film but no mention is made of religious holidays. One of the few references to Jewish tradition is at the end, where it is brought up that "we do not name people after the living." The grandmother's funeral is set in a Jewish cemetery with graves marked with a star of David.
