There are several reasons I treasure this film. What lingers for me, because I play the piano, is Randy Newman's sentimental and delicate score. I noticed in a recent viewing that the editing placed the score in the background, which added subtle texture, whereas in the Pixar films he's done the soundtracks are more aggressively in your face (ears) so to speak. The haunting themes in Avalon I consider to be some of master Randy's finest, with only "Awakenings" topping the list.
I had not realized how much of a family film this was, with no violence or vulgarity anywhere and frankly we don't miss it. The film is filled with nuances of ethnic inflections that capture the mannerisms in which people of that era communicated with each other. Sometimes the body language alone even was more hilarious and important than the actual dialogue.
Having grown up in an environment not too far removed from the immigrant Polish Jewish one portrayed, I recognized many family dramas that were so familiar I could pick them out one by one. It is not that families don't eat at table and talk and squabble anymore. It is often the starting point in which they bring their heated conversations to a boil that has changed over the generations. Consider for example the focus on pooling family finances either as a yearly tithe towards favoured charities or the same channelling of resources to sponsor or subsidize the arrival of another relative stuck in Europe. Families today rarely have cause to consider their lives within this framework.
The film is honest, charming, funny, sad and warm, by turns nostalgic and also quite descriptive of how European immigrants worked from nothing into (sometimes) very successful living conditions and levels of wealth and affluence. The generation of immigrants (not just Jewish) that fled the turmoils of Europe almost without exception came with very meagre resources. Pushing their children and encouraging their grandchildren to work hard, keep focused and to excel the standards that they lived helped propel the higher levels of success and affluence. All of that drama is given a proper map in this film.
There are some very funny scenes in this film, none more touching than the famous turkey scene in which Lou Jacobi's character (and his wife) typically arrive late for a Thanksgiving Dinner, having travelled by car quite a distance, only to find that his younger brother has just cut the turkey. Outraged by this insult to his pride, screaming at his brother that he "cut the toikee" (accents included) and making a family fuss of huge over reaction, makes for very funny but recognizable stresses that many families I'm sure faced.
Another thing that caught my attention is that Levinson almost completely bleached out the reality that these were Polish Jews. You can find maybe one line where someone responds to a sentence with Yiddish phrase, but it is spoken so quickly that unless you are aware of it you'll miss it entirely. No one is depicted going to synagogue or consulting a Rabbi. I find that a bit odd, considering that even if coming to Baltimore in 1914, the Jews were at that point more obviously Jewish, many men still wearing traditional head coverings. The only obvious sign of this being Jewish people are the exaggerated Jewish accents.
Watch for very young Elijah Woods who is quite good for a little kid. The real stars give an understated performance, allowing the richness of the story to speak for itself. I love this film and could recommend it to those who need an uplifting family based drama. Excellent.
I had not realized how much of a family film this was, with no violence or vulgarity anywhere and frankly we don't miss it. The film is filled with nuances of ethnic inflections that capture the mannerisms in which people of that era communicated with each other. Sometimes the body language alone even was more hilarious and important than the actual dialogue.
Having grown up in an environment not too far removed from the immigrant Polish Jewish one portrayed, I recognized many family dramas that were so familiar I could pick them out one by one. It is not that families don't eat at table and talk and squabble anymore. It is often the starting point in which they bring their heated conversations to a boil that has changed over the generations. Consider for example the focus on pooling family finances either as a yearly tithe towards favoured charities or the same channelling of resources to sponsor or subsidize the arrival of another relative stuck in Europe. Families today rarely have cause to consider their lives within this framework.
The film is honest, charming, funny, sad and warm, by turns nostalgic and also quite descriptive of how European immigrants worked from nothing into (sometimes) very successful living conditions and levels of wealth and affluence. The generation of immigrants (not just Jewish) that fled the turmoils of Europe almost without exception came with very meagre resources. Pushing their children and encouraging their grandchildren to work hard, keep focused and to excel the standards that they lived helped propel the higher levels of success and affluence. All of that drama is given a proper map in this film.
There are some very funny scenes in this film, none more touching than the famous turkey scene in which Lou Jacobi's character (and his wife) typically arrive late for a Thanksgiving Dinner, having travelled by car quite a distance, only to find that his younger brother has just cut the turkey. Outraged by this insult to his pride, screaming at his brother that he "cut the toikee" (accents included) and making a family fuss of huge over reaction, makes for very funny but recognizable stresses that many families I'm sure faced.
Another thing that caught my attention is that Levinson almost completely bleached out the reality that these were Polish Jews. You can find maybe one line where someone responds to a sentence with Yiddish phrase, but it is spoken so quickly that unless you are aware of it you'll miss it entirely. No one is depicted going to synagogue or consulting a Rabbi. I find that a bit odd, considering that even if coming to Baltimore in 1914, the Jews were at that point more obviously Jewish, many men still wearing traditional head coverings. The only obvious sign of this being Jewish people are the exaggerated Jewish accents.
Watch for very young Elijah Woods who is quite good for a little kid. The real stars give an understated performance, allowing the richness of the story to speak for itself. I love this film and could recommend it to those who need an uplifting family based drama. Excellent.