Main Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Mercedes Ruehl, Irene Worth, Brad Stoll, Mike Damus, David Strathairn
Release Year: 1993
Country: US
Run Time: 114 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
An adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, semi-autobiographical stage play by popular dramatist Neil Simon, this comedy-drama focuses on the difficulties faced by two young brothers forced to live with a group of eccentric relatives. Arty (Mike Damus) and Jay (Brad Stoll) are young teenagers when their their widower father heads South to seek work, leaving the boys with their stern, intimidating grandmother (Irene Worth). Also part of the household is the more likable Aunt Bella (Mercedes Ruehl), an odd duck with a scattered personality and childlike enthusiasm that make her seem more like a fellow kid than an adult. Bella is kept under close watch by Grandma, who reacts strongly when she attempts to show her independence, leaving Arty and Jay as witnesses to a conflict that could tear the family apart. Lost in Yonkers offers much of Simon's trademark humor with a more bittersweet feel than in most of the playwright's other work, thanks in large part to the performance by Ruehl, who reprises her Tony Award-winning role as the troubled but cheerful Bella. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
Robert Miranda - Hollywood Harry; Jack Laufer - Eddie; Susan Merson - Gert; Jesse Vincent - Danny; Jean Zarzour - Flo; Jennifer Shull
Credit
Mark Haack - Art Director, Jennifer Shull - Casting, Emanuel Azenberg - Co-producer, Shelley Komarov - Costume Designer, Randall Badger - First Assistant Director, Timothy Lonsdale - First Assistant Director, Martha Coolidge - Director, Steven Cohen - Editor, Joseph M. Caracciolo, Jr. - Executive Producer, Elmer Bernstein - Composer (Music Score), Dan Striepeke - Makeup, David Chapman - Production Designer, Johnny E. Jensen - Cinematographer, Raymond Stark - Producer, Marvin March - Set Designer, Neil Simon - Screenwriter
A coming of age tale, Lost in Yonkers focuses on brothers Arty and Jay, who are left in the care of their Grandma Kurnitz and Aunt Bella in Yonkers, New York by their desperate father Eddie, who needs to work as a traveling salesman to pay off debts incurred following his wife's death. Grandma is a severe, frightfully intimidating immigrant who terrified her children as they were growing up, damaging each of them to varying degrees. Bella is a sweet but mentally slow and highly excitable woman who longs to marry an usher at the local movie house so she can escape the oppressive household and create a life and family of her own. Her brother Louie is a small-time, tough-talking hoodlum who is on the lam, while her sister Gert suffers from a breathing problem with causes more psychological than physical. Missing much of the sentimentality of the plays comprising Simon's earlier Eugene Trilogy, Lost in Yonkers climaxes with a dramatic confrontation between bitter mother and lonely daughter that creates a permanent fissure in this highly dysfunctional family.
