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Disappointment for a huge fan!

An absolute waste of money

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

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.

I didn't expect this film to be very exciting, and it wasn't. But it was however a thoughtful, low-key story of a husband and wife dealing with their differences in regards to century old traditions.Carol Kane plays Gitl, a turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrant arriving from Eastern Europe to live with her husband in America. When she arrives in New York City she is surprised at how traditions held dear back home are thought of as 'uncivilized' here.For example: Her husband has shaved his beard, and the women no longer wear kerchiefs or wigs to cover their natural hair. This unnerves her and as the film progresses Gitl and her husband grow apart. Even after Gitl is given a 'makeover' by Mrs. Kavarsky (the great Doris Roberts) she knows that it's too late. Her husband is in love with another woman and wants a divorce.The pace in this movie is very slow, and the black and white cinematography is all but stagnant. But any other artistic approach to this story wouldn't ring true. The world back then for a Jewish immigrant was very slow paced. There wasn't a lot of color in their lives. And for women, sitting around their tiny apartments was all most would do.Carol Kane was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in this, but lost (deservedly) to Louise Fletcher for 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.' Kane would go on to star in the 1979 cult horror film 'When A Stranger Calls' and then transition into comedy roles that relied on her infectious goofiness. It was really interesting to see Kane play such a low-key, subdued character here, so different from the roles she's more famous for in shows like 'Taxi' or films like 'The Princess Bride' and 'Scrooged.'

It's pretty tough to build a realistic set of the Lower East Side, New York City, 1896. The Godfather films did the best they could. When directors shoot the distant past of our great grandfathers, they usually shoot in tempera hue antiquing the scenes, so we feel we are looking through a time machine. In the case of Joan Micklin Silver's, Hester Street, she shoots with black and white stock. All I'm saying, audiences won't believe it is the past without a newsreel or spooky tempera projection.The documentary feel to Hester Street, the authentic clothing and dialect, the old Russian to English dialect fills the viewer, especially Jewish filmgoers with a weird sense of nostalgia since no one today, in 2006 is alive to tell the immigrant story. The poverty, crowded conditions, popular prejudices, and alienation were a fact of life. It is amusing that these immigrants assimilated, learning English, building jobs, and business within two generations; all hardship forgotten consciously, but I would assert, not unconsciously.Carol Kane, Gitl, is a wonderful young country wife flabbergasted by the modern, secular ways of America. Her husband, actor, Steven Keats has left the greenhorn, religious Jew nonsense behind as he takes on a new girlfriend, a hottie for her day. His wife arrives with child unexpectedly thwarting his plans. Keats rejects her old world ways. Waiting in the wings is a boarder, a religious man that admires Gitl. A simple plot, no, but satisfying.

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 ****