Brighton Beach Memoirs

This 1986 big screen adaptation of the 1982 first play in Neil Simon's semi-autobiographical 'Eugene trilogy' stars Jonathan Silverman as Eugene Jerome (a role created by Matthew Broderick on stage), the younger brother in a Jewish American family living in Brooklyn, circa 1937. In the throes of puberty, Eugene’s major interests are baseball and sex, not necessarily in that order, and he keeps a journal about his family life that marks the first inklings of his interest in writing. Eugene, who also narrates and at times directly addresses the camera, introduces viewers to his extended family: his mother (Blythe Danner), a sharp-tongued woman who constantly sends Eugene on trips to the local grocery; his older brother (Brian Drillinger), who works for a bullying hatmaker; his father (Bob Dishy), a steadfastly moral man working two jobs to support them; and his widowed aunt (Judith Ivey) and her two daughters. While Eugene's primary goal is to see a naked woman (preferably his attractive older cousin), his father worries about their Jewish relations in Europe and his brother weighs his conscience with family needs when he's fired after standing up for a fellow employee. Directed by Gene Saks (who was also the original Broadway director) from a screenplay by Simon, Brighton Beach Memoirs indeed plays like a stage adaptation, with theatrical dialogue and performances filmed in handsome settings that lack any sense of lived-in realism. It's an intermittently entertaining film that is also short on dramatic weight. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)