Word: jakes
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Gitl can only take so much pain. She grows progressively more despondent over her justifiable suspicions that Jake is still seeing his old girlfriend. Tensions come to a head when he finds his wife with her hair seemingly french-fried in a hapless attempt to imitate American styles. They erupt out of mutual frustration, he hits her, and their scuffle ends several scenes later in an Orthodox Jewish divorce. Jake runs off with his girlfriend, and Gitl makes plans to marry Bernstein...
...World--is pretty well worn; everybody from Ernest Hemingway to Phillip Roth has used it with varying degrees of success. The distinctive feature of the topic in this film is that, unlike Robert Cohn or Alexander Portnoy, the principal character never undergoes a genuine identity crisis. Jake never really denies his Jewishness; upon learning of his father's death, he dons the ceremonial Jewish mourning shawl, and even his girlfriend, Mamie Fein, is Jewish. Jake's Jewishness never comes into question because he never departs from the Jewish community. Rather than rejecting his Jewishness, Jake is simply embracing as much...
...nose in her neighbors' affairs. In spite of this, she remains a likeable character. As much as she pries into others' business--and this is a measure of how Hester Street avoids callous stereotyping--she still has their interests at heart, as demonstrated by her attempts to reconcile Jake and Gitl over their differences...
SHOT IN SOFT black and white, this film has an air of innocence and charm about it. It conveys no really profound emotions, but a certain light pathos makes it appealing. The film's best scene is a picnic in the woods. Jake, Gitl, Joey and Bernstein, gather up the proper equipment and head into the woods. Just as they break through a clearing, a light rag picks up for background music, establishing a light mood. As sunlight streams through the trees, Jake starts up a game of all-American baseball with his son; there's something whimsical about this...
...woman by the end of the film; a submissive wife when she steps off the boat, she eventually emerges as an independent and assertive figure. The rest of the film's performances are generally solid, with only a few flaws such as Steven Keats's occasionally wooden portrayal of Jake. Keats's performance amounts to little more than bluster at times. His major problem is his inability to decide exactly how much he would like to Americanize Jake...