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JUDY BERLIN Send This Review to a Friend
One particularly worthy American discovery at the 1999 New Directors/New Films series of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art was "Judy Berlin," an accomplished first feature written and directed by Eric Mendelsohn. It is finally getting its commercial release. Mendelsohn creates a very special ambience in his Babylon, Long Island setting, where his leading characters seem suspended in time and space as their lives reach their respective crossroads.
The story occurs during an eclipse, which offers the opportunity for a dark, moody environment in a town that assumes an other-world-y aura. Mendlesohn is fortunate to have a superior cast, including Aaron Harnick as David Gold, who is back from a failure to achieve success in California, and Edie Falco as Judy Berlin, a former classmate who, against David's advice, has made up her mind to leave for Hollywood to strive for an acting career.
David's parents, Alice and Arthur Gold, touchingly played by the late Madeline Kahn and Bob Dishy, have a marriage that is emotionally in limbo, and Arthur's feelings are building up for Barbara Barrie, who plays his teacher colleague at school. Bette Henritze, a fine actress who has recently been impressing audiences in the Broadway revival of Noel Coward's play "Waiting in the Wings," eerily haunts the film as a pitiful but proud elderly woman with memory loss.
Others in the cast include Carlin Glynn, Julie Kavner and Anne Meara. Mendelsohn, who won the best director award for his film at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, exhibits remarkable control in adhering to the mood he creates and the end result is a thoroughly engrossing, very special work inhabited by the interesting characters in a search for the right paths in their troubles lives. The film takes on a separate poignancy with the impressive farewell performance by Madeline Kahn, whose tragic early death has robbed us of the broad talent she has shown throughout her career. A Shooting Gallery release.
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