Main Cast: Amy Irving, Reizl Bozyk, Peter Riegert, Jeroen Krabbé, Sylvia Miles
Release Year: 1988
Country: US
Run Time: 97 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Can an independent, contemporary woman find happiness with a guy who sells pickles? Isabelle Grossman (Amy Irving) is an attractive, intelligent Jewish woman in her early 30s. She has a good job and a nice apartment on the Upper West Side, and she values her independence; she often visits her grandmother Bubbie (Reiz Bozyk), who lives on the Lower East Side and wants Isabelle to meet a nice Jewish man and settle down. Bubbie goes so far as to obtain the services of Hannah Mandelbaum (Sylvia Miles), a matchmaker who finds the "perfect" man for Isabelle: a pickle salesman named Sam Posner (Peter Riegert). Isabelle thinks Sam is a nice enough guy, but she has a hard time imagining herself spending her life with the pickle man, and she isn't sure if she wants to pursue the relationship. However, Sam is taken with Isabelle and goes out of his way to change her mind. Crossing Delancy was directed by Joan Micklin Silver, whose breakthrough film Hester Street also examined Jewish culture on the Lower East Side, albeit from the vantage point of the 1890s. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Crossing Delancey is a charming romantic comedy about the clash between traditional values and the modern world that too often pushes them aside. The story primarily focuses on the American experience of different generations of Eastern European Jews -- highlighted by Amy Irving's finely nuanced performance as the conflicted, ambitious Izzy -- but the tale is universal to any group of people whose roles and customs changed over the course of the 20th century. Directed with obvious love by Joan Micklin Silver from Susan Sandler's screenplay, Delancey is buoyed by endearing, funny supporting turns from Reizl Bozyk as Izzy's Bubbie, and Sylvia Miles as the matchmaker who brings Izzy and the more traditional pickle salesman Sam (Peter Riegert) together. Riegert's character is somewhat underwritten: It's hard to tell why he and Izzy should end up together, aside from his inherent niceness. Still, Delancey successfully stresses the need for love, regardless of Old World/New World, uptown/downtown differences. ~ Matthew Doberman, All Movie Guide
Suzzy Roche - Marilyn Cohen; George Martin - Lionel; John Bedford Lloyd - Nick; Claudia Silver - Cecilia Monk; David Hyde Pierce - Mark; Rosemary Harris - Pauline Swift; Amy Wright - Ricki; Faye Grant - Candyce; Deborah Offner - Karen; Kathleen Wilhoite - Myla Bondy; Mina Bern - Would-be Victim; Susan Blommaert - Leslie; Christine Campbell - Woman in Cab; Reg E. Cathey - Cab Driver; Debra Cole - Waitress; Ronnie Gilbert - Mugger; Jayne Haynes - Book Thief; Keith Reddin - Celebrity Party Guest; Vickilyn Reynolds - Woman in Sauna; Marie Antoinette Rogers - Party Guest; Moishe Rosenfeld - Rabbi; Stan Rubin - Pickle Stand Customer; Tudor Sherrard - Book Peddler; Dolores Sutton - Aunt Miriam; Myra Taylor - Friend in Sauna; Richard Frisch - Happy Birthday Singer; Pat Oleszko - Himself; Susan Sandler - Molly; John Patrick Shanley - Celebrity Party Guest; Arthur Tracy - Pickle Stand Customer; Dennis Belloco - Maitre d'; Mimi Bensinger - Mrs. Grossman; Susan Braudy - Celebrity Party Guest; Madge Cooper - Celebrity Party Guest; Sam Corsi - Handball Champ; Loring Eutemey - Celebrity Party Guest; Vicki Goldberg - Celebrity Party Guest; Ida Harnden - Mugger; Jacob Harran - Guest at Bris; Hendrik Hertzberg - Celebrity Party Guest; Paula Laurence - Diva; Stanley Leff - Celebrity Party Guest; Bob Levine - Mr. Grossman; Lee M. Lindersman - Watier; Quincy Long - Celebrity Party Guest; Hugh Nissenson - Celebrity Party Guest; Brad O'Hare - Photographer; Stan Page - Happy Birthday Singer; Miriam Phillips - Sarah Jacobs; Kevin Rogers - Messenger; Betty Rollin - Party Guest; Arthur Rubin - Happy Birthday Singer; Lore Segal - Celebrity Party Guest; Scott Somer - Celebrity Party Guest; Young Ho Kim - Mr. Kim; Meg Simon; Fran Kumin; Freda Foh Shen - Self-Defense Teacher; Michael Ornstein - Mickey; Tony Perez - Counter Boy
Credit
Leslie Rollins - Art Director, Nellie Nugiel - Associate Producer, Meg Simon - Casting, Fran Kumin - Casting, Rita Ryack - Costume Designer, Louis D'Esposito - First Assistant Director, Joan Micklin Silver - Director, Rick Shaine - Editor, Raphael Silver - Executive Producer, The Roches - Composer (Music Score), Paul Chihara - Composer (Music Score), Gretchen Christopher - Songwriter, Barbara Ellis - Songwriter, Pat Oleszko - Songwriter, David Roche - Songwriter, Margaret A. Roche - Songwriter, Suzzy Roche - Songwriter, Terre Roche - Songwriter, Gary Troxel - Songwriter, David Forrest - Makeup, Dan Leigh - Production Designer, Theo Van de Sande - Cinematographer, Michael Nozik - Producer, Raphael Silver - Producer, Daniel Boxer - Set Designer, Danny Michael - Sound/Sound Designer, Phil Neilson - Stunts, Susan Sandler - Screenwriter, Oscar Hammerstein II - Featured Music, Isham Jones - Featured Music, Gus Kahn - Featured Music, Richard Rodgers - Featured Music, Susan Sandler - Play Author
Crossing Delancey is a romantic comedy film starring Amy Irving and Peter Riegert released in 1988. It is directed by Joan Micklin Silver and based on a play by Susan Sandler, who also wrote the screenplay. Amy Irving was nominated for a Golden Globe for the movie, for "Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical".
Plot
Isabelle Grossman (played by Irving) works for a New York bookstore which supports authors through public readings. When the author Anton Maes (Jeroen Krabbé) comes to the bookstore to give such a reading, he shows an interest in Isabelle who is enamored with the intellectual world that is very different from her traditional Jewish upbringing.
Isabelle pays frequent visits to her Bubbie, (grandmother) Ida (the legendary Yiddish theatre star Reizl Bozyk in her only film role), who lives on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Anxious for her granddaughter to settle down, Ida turns to the local marriage broker. Although shocked and annoyed, Isabelle allows the matchmaker to introduce her to Sam Posner (Peter Riegert), who owns the pickle shop on Essex, below Delancey Street.
At first Isabelle is not interested in Sam, believing that he is too working-class for her. Instead, she sets her sights on Anton and the New York intelligentsia. But she also feels sorry for Sam and tries to set him up with her girlfriend Marilyn (Suzzy Roche). In the process, she learns that he did not hire a matchmaker out of desperation and in fact has admired Isabelle from afar for several years. Deeply touched, Isabelle agrees to meet him at her grandmother's house. After work, however, she is sidelined by Anton and, believing that he is romantically interested in her, goes to his apartment. She discovers instead that Anton wants the convenience of an assistant, not a true partner. Finally seeing through him, the disgusted Isabelle races to her grandmother's apartment, finding it empty with Ida sleeping on the couch. Heartbroken, she believes she has ruined her chances with the honest and caring Sam. As she cries, Sam enters from the balcony. The two finally are united and Ida feigns confusion but is gleeful that her plan has succeeded.
