Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Blistering performances.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Director Joan Micklin Silver's first full-length feature film, HESTER STREET is an utterly beguiling and absorbing tale of a Russian Jewish family and the trials and tribulations that they face upon emigrating to America.We start with Jake (Americanized version of Yankel), the husband and father (Steven Keats), who like so many, came ahead of his wife and son to get himself established. Jake is a determined assimilationist; he tries without success to throw off his accent, shaves off his beard, and goes about with his head uncovered, all of which would have been shocking for a Jew in the Old Country, but in the United States, the people have the freedom to pick and choose.I don't remember how long Jake has been in the USA before his family finally get there, but it's long enough for him to form a passionate attachment to Mamie (Dorrie Kavanaugh), a broad on the make who manipulates him shamelessly because she can. He also has a boarder: Mr Bernstein (Mel Howard), who unlike Jake, is distrustful of shedding the old ways and harbors a secret desire to be a Torah scholar.Jake's wife Gitl (Carol Kane in a stunning performance) and son Yossele (Paul Freedman) finally arrive in New York, and to put it mildly, Jake is somewhat less than thrilled at the reunion with his wife. When she introduces him to his son using his Yiddish name, Jake reacts violently and informs her that in America his son's name is Joey. Gitl, overwhelmed and confused, says nothing.The rest of the film charts both Gitl's attempts to assimilate and the gradual disintegration of her marriage. In their first scene together in their apartment, he angrily informs her that no one wears wigs in America. She tries to compromise by switching to a kerchief, but he bellows at her that that is no good either. Gitl realizes, much to her horror, that he expects her to go about "with my own hair;" something a married woman would never do.Gitl is not without allies. Bernstein rather obviously falls in love with her early on, and she is helped with her assimilation process by Mrs Kavarsky (the great Doris Roberts), a jolly sort who dresses as she pleases and goes about with her head uncovered and is not the least bit afraid of Jake; in fact she goes after him on a couple of occasions, the most poignant of these being the moment when Gitl shyly shows herself to him with her own hair neatly styled, and he reacts as if she were a streetwalker. Mrs Kavarsky gives him the rough edge of her tongue in an extended rant that he does not dare to stand up to; at bottom, Jake is a bully and a coward, wanting nothing more than to rid himself of his wife, whom he no longer loves, so that he can take up with Mamie.Meantime, Gitl, shy though she may be, is no fool; she picks up enough English to get by, and is aware of Bernstein's admiration of her fairly early on. She remains polite to him, even kind, encouraging him to study Torah if that is what he wants, but maintaining the distance between them as a married woman should.Until one day when Jake finally pushes Gitl over the edge and she decides to divorce him. Even the inequity of the divorce ritual is well-documented here; Gitl may not marry for ninety-one days from the divorce, whereas Jake could marry that same day if he had a mind to.The ending is funny, sad, happy, and ironic all at once, as Gitl and Bernstein walk off together in one direction and Jake and Mamie in another. Gitl and Bernstein are radiant; Mamie is smugly triumphant, but Jake is already beginning to realize that he may have made a terrible mistake. But he has been such an out-and-out bastard to his wife that one can't help laughing at the irony of the trap he is in, a trap of his own making.The acting is exquisite; there is not a single false note in this film, which is especially impressive since the actors had to work in both English and Yiddish. The entire cast is wonderful, but Carol Kane in particular shines here. Kane's best feature has always been her deep, expressive eyes, and she communicates volumes with them, as Gitl moves from being a submissive, Old Country wife subject to the whim of her husband to a woman of self-confidence who finds love with a man who also respects her.This is a beautiful little film; every moment rings absolutely true. A stunning debut for Silver.

It was said that when Carol Kane was notified that she had been nominated for best actress, she had just returned home from the Unemployment Division."Hester Street" is the story of impoverished Jews at the end of the 19th century in New York City.A low budget film, it recounts the story of a woman arriving from Europe with her young son to her husband, who has been in the U.S. for a while.Her husband has become a real "American" while she will struggle to assimilate. Fact is, she just can't do that.To make ends meet, a border lives in the house which was a very common practice then. (Kane winds up with him by the end of the film.)Doris Roberts, in a brief appearance, is funny with her line that 2 women with their rear ends can't be in the same kitchen at one time.As the couple, Carol Kane and the late Steven Keats are perfect examples of a Jewish couple, whose relationship was obviously arranged in Europe. They really have nothing in common other than their Jewish faith, and this becomes quite evident once the Kane character joins her husband in America.By film's ending, the couple are divorcing by getting the Jewish "get." (divorce) By Jewish law, the husband can marry immediately but the wife will have to wait for 90 days before she can do this.Kane's acting is excellent, especially with the effective use of Yiddish which she heard quite frequently in her Cleveland home.The set decorations are excellent. You feel that you're in the typical Jewish home of that period.

Carol Kane never really found her niche in the movies--only when she switched to sitcoms did her googly-eyed craziness really come off. But in 1975, before we'd gotten used to her comic bravado, she turned in a lovely, Oscar-nominated portrayal of an immigrant Russian Jew in New York that still stuns, even today. Quiet emotions permeate this careful, low-budget, somewhat slight film set on New York's East Side in 1896. Writer-director Joan Micklin Silver has a genuinely sly eye for detail that results in some amusing moments, but for the most part it's a human drama in a thoughtful key which builds momentum as it goes along. **1/2 from ****

With its black-and-white cinematography, soundtrack music, and Jewish characters, this film at times reminded me superficially of a Woody Allen movie. But writer/director Joan Micklin Silver made an original film here. If you like a movie that immerses you in a less-familiar culture you might give 'Hester Street' a try.Steven Keats plays a Russian emigre who prides himself on the way he's molded himself into a real Yankee in the USA, though the world he lives in, New York's Lower East Side in the late 19th century, is almost exclusively populated by other Jewish immigrants. When his wife (Carol Kane) finally arrives in the New World, however, she has a lot of assimilating to do. This causes the tension which drives the movie along, though it maintains a fairly light atmosphere most of the time.Keats and Kane do fine jobs in their roles; in fact, Kane was nominated for an Academy Award. Dorrie Kavanaugh and Doris Roberts are among the good supporting cast.