Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Mercedes Ruehl, Irene Worth, Brad Stoll, Mike Damus
Director: Martha Coolidge
Producer: Ray Stark
Screenplay: Neil Simon (based on his play)
Cinematography: Johnny E. Jensen
Music: Elmer Bernstein
U.S. Distributor: Columbia Pictures
It's the early 1940s in New York and the country is at war. When the father of young Jay (Brad Stoll) and Arty (Mike Damus) has to go on a prolonged business trip through the southern states (he fell heavily in debt paying his dying wife's hospital bills and now he has to find a way to make enough money to keep the loan sharks from killing him), he leaves his sons with his mother (Irene Worth), who owns a candy store in Yonkers. Grandma is a cold, cruel woman who believes that boys should not cry. She metes out punishment with an iron fist and both of her grandsons quickly learn to fear and hate her. Also living in the house is Bella (Mercedes Ruehl), the boys' childlike, wacky aunt who wants nothing more than to have someone to hold and love. Stopping in for a few days is Bella's gangster brother, Louie (Richard Dreyfuss), a small-time operator who teaches his nephews a few lessons about life.
As is often true of stories penned by play-and-screenwriter Neil Simon, this is a simple tale about simple people. No momentous or earthshattering events take place, and there's nothing that one would normally associate with a motion picture script. In fact, for about the first third of the film, it doesn't look like there's point. Except for a few humorous vignettes, this part of Lost in Yonkers is dull and unspectacular.
Richard Dreyfuss has top billing, but he's not in much of the movie. Nevertheless, despite limited screen time, Dreyfuss' Louie is a pivotal character, giving impetus to the story. Lost in Yonkers is almost half over by the time Louie makes his first appearance and he's gone before the final quarter. Yet the character, fleshed out by a powerful performance, is the centerpoint of the picture, a marvellous mix of anger, greed, and likability.
Mercedes Ruehl's performance, like the development of her character, goes through a transition as the film progresses. Near the beginning, Bella is completely unconvincing, presenting a wide-eyed facade of sheer idiocy that few viewers are likely to accept. It doesn't help that Ruehl goes over-the-top during these scenes. However, as the film moves forward, not only does Bella become more believable, but the actress finds her rhythm. It can be argued that the transition of the character is difficult to swallow, and while that may be true, the problem is more with where Bella starts, not where she ends up.
Although Simon has set this story in the '40s, Lost in Yonkers is a rare example of a period piece that doesn't strive for nostalgia. The costumes and settings are right, but the script isn't laden with the too-common sense of longing that makes the audience look back fondly on days gone by.
The pacing is erratic. The first half of the movie is relatively light, with frequent bursts of humor. Later, however, Lost in Yonkers becomes an emotional experience, with almost too many intense scenes. The two children, who are central to the story during the movie's first hour, are shunted into the background as the conflict between Bella and her mother takes prominence.
Lost in Yonkers has a reasonably solid story that doesn't suffer from the "everything must be happy" Hollywood-type ending, but the uneven tone hurts this screen adaptation of Simon's Pulitzer Prize- winning play. Something has definitely been lost in the translation, and as hard as the movie works to keep the audience's attention, it's only partially successful. Dreyfuss is magnetic, but this is really Mercedes Ruehl's movie, and she's only occasionally up to the job.
© 1993 James Berardinelli