7/28/2019 Movie review: "Avalon"

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From left; Mina Bern, Joan Plorright, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and Leo Fuchs in "Avalon.','

ffi year Fifties we romanticize :-- thecousinousln rzzy (Aevrn rollak, open ashop selling that newfangled in-YALolt3 Wrifen and directed by Barry.Levinsn-..Prgild !y Mark Jshnson and Levinson. Phob-srrirficd I A[en Dwiau, A.S.C ^,lu$lc by.R.ndv: Nevman. Ediled iv. Stu Linder. SLirrlttg, AidalQuinn, Elizabelh Perkins, Armin Muellr-Shhl JoanPlowrighf, Lou Jacobi, Leo Fkhs, Keyin Pollak,Eliiah :lltood, lsrael .ifuiHnek, Rleased b9 Tri-StarPiclur$. 127 mlnutes. Rald PG. Opef,s loday at lhGemini :in:tdanhattan, -'By Frank LoveceSpecial to The Record

In Celtic legend, Avalon was theisland paradide of the her-oic dead,the Forest Lawn of King Arthur.That the city fathers of Ealtimore*ould assiga the name to a work-. ing.class neighborhood. of rowhouses says a lot about both theAmerican dreani and the Ameri-can fantasy. Likewise does writcr-director Barry Levinson, whosestringof hits ('RainMan," "GoodMorning, Vietnam," "Tin Men")has grven him the clout to do the"'kind of movie Hollywood almostnever does - a heartfelt,personalchildhood memoir told in a per-sonal, non-formulaic way, a movieas free and relaxed and delightfullyquirky as a ft[ini picture.-In, fact, "Avalon" is reminiseentof Fellini's own childhood memoir,"Amareord" (1974), and in moreways than just the title. Recount-ing 50 years in the life. of the semi-autobiographical Krichinsky clan,it uses the same flashback-flash-forward structure, unstuck intime, that fills in the big picturewith the leisurely surprise of a jig.saw puzzle. It has the festivals oflight.'-- celebrations for this orthat - that always seem brighterand morecolorful in memory. Andit carries the sense of a simpler,more close-knit world, where afarrily struggled to make endsmeet, but the kids, in blithe mem-ory, had wonderful times anyway.Levinson's own childhood, in

vntioq tbe T\ilset. The shop doeswell enough that Jules and hisfa4ily can move to the suburbs, goto nightclubs, and lgenerally gen-trifu. Jules and Iz4y hed long sinceAmericanized thei! Iast names, thestart of a seemingly inevitablechange in the old oider: lLelinson, as in his piwious Bal-timore movies, "Diner" and "TinMen," spins a tale full of anecdotesand hilarious everyday conversa-tion. We see played out what thefamily might have told as The Daythe Streetcar Jumped Its Tracks,andThe Time Miohael Got Stungby the Bees.Yet "Avalon" is no simple col-lection of shaggy-dos t l';s. Se-hind the manicured lawns andshiny new cars, there is the con-stant,specter of death. Jules is,stabbed and nearly killed; his wife,Ann (Elizabeth Perkins), narrovlJrescapes tragedlr in her car, and oneof Sam's brothers succumbs to theflu epidemic of 1918. With the re- -alrty of death so well established, -other incidents in the movie -ichael's bee-stings, a basementfire .1. take on an emotional edgealmost uncomfortably like realnle.

His first day here, as Sam tradi- *31^ti:*ll^-,ry::ffl'.pllitionallvtellsMichaelandhiscous- [ron' Duf, a.wel-oDserYed' true-to-ins eviry Thanksgivine dinner, he 11i:.,e::.*]:'ol,^ot-11:,tT9l'o""f1T,:ri,,:13l1*,,1_trrl:illf,I';iiifi i,;:irffi i,'"?lf; ,frlf:T^l'ilTl-c "t:T]Y - .|@1 Levinsonts tife - Saiurday-morn-ror ncn people - Yh?t a country! ing serials, summers *ittt theThat sense of proud absurdity,Ttr fi"i61ff'_ -f,#Ji"r ii"o*" .oithe tone for the rest of the fiLn. ffiii"^if, generation. and theMichael's father, Jules, played e*oiiotr"lat"iirlt"r*.i*.L-".fu t.he dependably excellen! Aidan'are timeless. With ,,Avalorr." -ioQqio., is a door-to-door salesman. than in any of his films, LevinsonAfter nearly pei$ ki[e{ in a mlg- has made ihe personal'universdl,grng - startlingly, fo.thq W.pnaer*-,.gtld that is not- craft,, but art.

Aidan Quinn as Jules Kaye.the 1950s, is the chronologicalcbre. His alter-ego is Michael (Eli=jah Wood), a bright kid with bigeyes who adores his live-in grand-father, whom he familiarly callsSam. Played by Armin Mueller-Stahl, the East German character-actor most familiar as JessicaLange's co-star in "Music Box,"So- is the avuncular fa-ily head,who came to America in 1914 tojoin his four brothers, who findwork as humble paperhangers.