the audience applauded

Don't Believe the Hype

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Blistering performances.

I actually was in an on stage production of this. I can say with utmost certainty that a play was better than a movie with RICHARD DREYFUSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was the only competent actor. Otherwise, the acting s atrocious. The kid actors were okay, and better than most. Merchedes Rheul is just terrible. I don't think she should have been added to the cast in any way. This is a true disgrace towards Neil Simon. Of course, Mr. Simon delivered in the sense of storytelling. This film was just a letdown.

It's the summer of 1942. Eddie Kurnitz just lost his wife and drives his two boys to live with their grandma (Irene Worth) and unstable childlike aunt Bella (Mercedes Ruehl) in Yonkers while he goes on the road for a job. Grandma owns a candy store but she's a stern woman. She has a boyfriend named Johnny (David Strathairn) who is also slow. They need $5k to open a restaurant and Bella tells the boys that grandma has hidden a large sum somewhere. The boys go sneaking around trying to find it. Uncle Louie Kurnitz (Richard Dreyfuss) is a bagman and henchman. He comes home one night to hide out from gangster Hollywood Harry. He has a black bag which he tells the boys not to touch.The boys aren't the most charismatic. The problem is that the movie needs to be seen through their eyes. It has to be their movie. The boys are more annoying sneaky money-grubbing brats than adorable kids. Mercedes is wonderful. She's the standout performance and her character is the heart of the movie. The movie is a little quirky but there is nothing funny about it. Director Martha Coolidge isn't able to inject much style into the movie. The movie needs a good soundtrack from the era.

This movie is an excellent screen adaptation of a great play. Instead of being hokey or sentimental, the story provides a candid portrayal of a family in crisis, as each family member is forced to deal with issues that have long repressed. Essentially, the story centers around the relationship between an overbearing mother, performed magnificently by Irene Worth, and her confused daughter, played by Mercedes Ruehl. Ms. Ruehl's performance is a tour-de-force. She completely dominates this movie. The climactic scene between the mother and daughter is both poignant and powerful, and raises this movie to the level of great cinema and drama. Richard Dreyfuss also gives a strong performance as the brother with the bravado but also with a heart. This movie should be a must-watch for anyone who likes screen adaptations of plays and for people in general who like strong drama.

This film more than any other epitomises for me what a certain kind of upbringing I call "a cold cradle" can do to a person. Children get their first impressions of the world through the beliefs of their parents. These impressions are indelible. Normally, early childhood is spent in the protection of loving parents, but what if these parents are not the cuddling kind? What if they despise your weakness of crying, instead of saying words of comfort? What if there is no place in your family to share feelings and fears? Even when you later discover that it is OK to feel, the defences you have built around your personality in your early years are very difficult to undo and if you have overcome them they are still triggered when you have to deal with your family. In the film we see four adult siblings who have survived the misery and rebelled, each in different ways. Most people fortunately don't know how terrible it is for the father to put his two boys into his mother's care, his fears seem exaggerated, surely a stern grandmother can't be too bad. But her type of sternness is very damaging not just to overly sensitive people. We see this more clearly as the story unfolds and we learn how each member of the family has coped and yet no one has been able to topple the matriarch from her throne. But as she takes the education of yet another generation in her hands, the tensions mount to breaking point.This film is not a comedy, though it has its funny moments. It is not a complete tragedy either, and it avoids becoming bleak and depressing. I think its greatest value is in showing those who have had a warm cradle -- fortunately most -- what it's like to have had a cold one, if it helps increase a general understanding of the emotional difficulties that these people have to overcome to unlock their shielded hearts to their fellow men.