Warner Bros.
1988
Rated: PG
Available on video
When a contemporary woman with high ideals of love and life is fixed up by a marriage broker, her match is not at all what she desires.
Izzy (Irving) is a modern day woman. She works for an independent, NY bookstore that allows her to rub elbows with famous authors including the recently separated Anton Maes (Krabbe). To her, he seems the ideal man...good-looking, intellectual and worldly. He’s a status symbol, a representation of everything she wants to be. He’s also self-absorbed and selfish, two faults she’s blinded too because of her desire to be noticed by him.
While Izzy strives to be more, her Jewish grandmother is vocal in her displeasure. Bubbie (Bozyk) doesn’t approve of Izzy’s apartment, her attire, her rejection of their culture and most especially, her single status. She believes the only thing Izzy needs is a nice, upstanding Jewish man to make everything right. Izzy’s inability--or rather, refusal--to find such a man prompts Bubbie to hire Hannah (Miles), the local marriage broker. Izzy is not only horrified by the old world tradition, but by the match Hannah and Bubbie present her with...Sam Posner(Riegert), the pickle man. He’s everything Bubbie wished for. He’s also sincere, thoughtful, unpretentious and charming. Yet, Izzy is unable to accept his blue-collar lifestyle, unwilling to believe happiness can come from simplicity.
In the end, she’s left confused and torn between two men. One represents what her mind wants, the other represents her heart...who will win?
Based on Susan Sandler’s play, Crossing Delancey is a charming comedy about new world desires clashing with old world traditions. It’s a timeless tale of a woman struggling to find happiness and independence...her way. Slow to start, the movie begins to steal into your heart about the time Bubbie and Hannah set up Sam and Izzy. These two irrepressible, old broads are impossible not to love. In fact, it’s only fair to say that Reizyl Bozyk is the heart and soul of this movie as the meddling, mouthy Bubbie. Her gap-toothed grin and sparking eyes are as mischievous as any child’s and it’s that infectious spirit that will have you groaning one minute and laughing the next. Amy Irving gives a sharp, believable performance as Izzy. You’ll smile at her wide-eyed, smitten look one minute and be ready to strangle her for her unyielding stubbornness the next. Peter Riegert is charming and cute as the pickle peddler, but his part is severely underwritten, not giving him the chance to really woo the viewer or, for that matter, Izzy. Finally, I felt the ending left a lot to be desired, however there’s no denying the soft-heart at the center of this movie, nor is there any denying the fact that Bozyk makes this movie worth seeing. I give Crossing Delancey three hearts. While it had wonderful humor, the real romance begins just as it ends.
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