Main Cast: William Hurt, Harvey Keitel, Forest Whitaker, Harold Perrineau, Jr., Victor Argo
Release Year: 1995
Country: US
Run Time: 108 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A Brooklyn cigar shop is the setting for this drama from director Wayne Wang that interweaves the stories of several characters that have fractured family relationships in common. Harvey Keitel is Auggie Wren, poetic owner of the Brooklyn Cigar Company, a store that he considers the center of the world -- a place where all of humanity eventually parades through. One of his regular customers is Paul Benjamin (William Hurt), a writer and a broken shell of a man whose pregnant wife was shot and killed near the store. When Paul's life is saved one day by a young black man named Rashid (Harold Perrineau, Jr., the writer and his rescuer strike up a friendship and begin searching for Rashid's long-lost father (Forest Whitaker). At the store, Auggie is surprised by the appearance of Ruby (Stockard Channing), an ex-girlfriend who informs him that her pregnant, drug-addicted daughter Felicity (Ashley Judd) may also be his -- and is in dire need of help. Screenwriter Paul Auster based the script for Smoke on a 1990 short story he wrote for "The New York Times." He also wrote and directed the film's sequel (of sorts), Blue in the Face (1995). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
A refreshingly appointed slice-of-life ode to Brooklyn, New York, Wayne Wang's low-key drama is quietly enchanting in its refusal to trump up its subject matter, which includes drugs, adoption and misanthropic writers. Everything is presented in a matter-of-fact manner, stemming, it seems, from writer-novelist Paul Auster's credible and detailed screenplay, which doesn't offer tidy solutions for its characters' conflicts. William Hurt and Harvey Keitel marvelously inhabit the film's almost-mystical portrayal of its beloved borough. Keitel's lengthy and stunningly delivered monologue near the close of the film almost singularly makes the whole picture something special. Much of the cast and filmmakers reunited for a largely improvised (and less successful) "sequel," entitled Blue in the Face, which adopted a looser, less-structured attitude, but retains many of the same characters and locations. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
Erica Gimpel - Doreen Cole; Stockard Channing - Ruby; Giancarlo Esposito - Tommy; Mel Gorham - Violetta; Peggy Gormley - Sue; Baxter Harris - First coroner; Jared Harris - Jimmy Rose; Robert Jackson - A Brooklyn resident; Ashley Judd - Felicity; Murray Moston - Waiter; Deirdre O'Connell - Waitress; Clarice Taylor - Grandma Ethel; Mary Ward - April Lee; Malik Yoba - The Skunk; John Lurie - A musician; Paul Geier - Second coroner; Michelle Hurst - Aunt Em; José Zuñiga - Jerry; RuPaul - A dancer; Billy Martin - A musician
Credit
Jeff McDonald - Art Director, Billy Hopkins - Casting, Heidi Levitt - Casting, Claudia Brown - Costume Designer, Chuck Keehne - Costume Designer, Wayne Wang - Director, Maysie Hoy - Editor, Christopher Tellefsen - Editor, Bob Weinstein - Executive Producer, Harvey Weinstein - Executive Producer, Satoru Iseki - Executive Producer, Rachel Portman - Composer (Music Score), Kalina Ivanov - Production Designer, Adam Holender - Cinematographer, Peter Newman - Producer, Diana Phillips - Producer, Hisami Kuroiwa - Producer, Greg Johnson - Producer, Drew Kunin - Sound/Sound Designer, Paul Auster - Screenwriter, Dmitry Shostakovich - Featured Music, Paul Auster - Short Story Author
The film follows the lives of multiple characters, all of whom are connected by their patronage of a small Brooklyn tobacco shop managed by Auggie (Harvey Keitel). Brooklyn Cigar Co. was located on the corner of 16th Street and Prospect Park West.
The film was followed by Blue in the Face, a sequel of sorts that continues following a few of the characters and introduces several new ones.
Awards
Won
Silver Bear (Wayne Wang) Berlin International Film Festival, 1995
Danish Film Critics Bodil Award for Best American Film, 1995
