Revisiting Barry Levinson’s Avalon

Barry Levinson’s Avalon charts the journey of a Jewish immigrant family, the Krichinskys, in Baltimore throughout the 1940s and ’50s.  Armin Mueller-Stahl stars as Sam Krichinsky, who immigrates from Poland to Baltimore in 1941.  We follow Sam and his extended family, especially his son Jules (Aidan Quinn), as the years pass and the family gradually assimilates into American life.

After rewatching Diner, I wanted to continue and watch another of Barry Levinson’s Baltimore films.  I love Avalon, which Mr. Levinson wrote & directed, and it was a pleasure to revisit it.

Avalon is a more complicated film that Diner.  It’s a more difficult film.  Diner is carried along by its compelling, funny leading men.  And while that film is endearingly light on plot, what story it has is nevertheless tightly focused, as it depicts several tumultuous days in the life of this friend group, leading up to Eddie’s wedding.  Avalon, on the other hand, has a vast cast of characters and depicts decades in the life of an extended family.

The film is sweet but also deeply melancholy.  We see the benefits to the Krichinsky family as the years pass, and technology advances, and they are able to get a more financially comfortable and move out of the Baltimore row houses and into the suburbs.  But the film is front-and-center with the downsides of those changes.  We see the once-tight extended family fracture as they spread further apart, geographically.  The arrival of TVs in every house is exciting, but it changes the dynamic of the family dinner.  One of the saddest elements of Avalon for me is Sam’s fight with his brother Gabriel when they finally — after years of tolerating his late arrival to the family Thanksgiving dinner — decide to cut the turkey without him, an act that Gabriel deems an enormous offense.  In one of the film’s most interesting dramatic choices, we never see Sam and Gabriel reconcile; Gabriel doesn’t even come to the funeral when Sam’s wife Eva.  (“This is not a family,” we hear Sam mutter unhappily after the funeral.  The film never really provides a counter-argument to him.)

I find this melancholy deeply moving, and it’s one of the reasons I have always enjoyed this film.

It was a somewhat dreamlike sense to it.  The narrative bounces around decades; it’s almost as if we’re one of the grandkids, listening to elderly Sam’s stories about the history of their family.  I can understand if this makes the film somewhat challenging to latch on to for some, at least in the early going.  Personally, I enjoy this structure and the sense of scope it gives to the story.

Mr. Levinson shows remarkable empathy for this immigrant story.  It feels like an important story, especially here in 2022, when immigrants seem to be looked down on by so many Americans.  Avalon is, on the one hand, a distinctly Jewish story.  In a million different ways, the film takes the time to explore and depict the Jewish culture of this family.  At the same time, there’s a universality to the story that I think is critical to how well the film works.  The story of the Krichinsky family could be (and surely was) the story of so many immigrant families of so many different religions, cultures, and backgrounds.  The film depicts the wonderful opportunities that can still be found in the United States, and also the challenges to be found here.

The cast is wonderful.  (My only complaint is that I wish more of the actors playing this Jewish family were actually Jewish.  For instance, neither of the leading men, Armin Mueller-Stahl nor Aidan Quinn, were Jewish.)  That being said, Mr. Mueller-Stahl delivers a towering performance as Sam.  Mr. Mueller-Stahl gives Sam great nobility and dignity, and a strong sense of goodness that shines through.  We also see his sadness, and his sense of loss, as the years pass and the things he held dear slowly fall away from him.  It’s a beautiful, richly felt performance.  Aidan Quinn is strong as his son Jules, a young man caught between the ways of his father’s generation while also fully embracing American culture and particularly the American entrepreneurial spirit.  Kevin Pollak is wonderful as Jules’ cousin Izzy.  Izzy and Jules are peas in a pod for most of the film; Mr. Pollak and Mr. Quinn make a great pair; their characters are both very similar and also very different.  Elizabeth Perkins (Big) is great as Jules’ wife Ann, who is often frustrated by Jules’ parents.  Lou Jacobi is incredibly memorable as the blustery Gabriel Krichinsky.  A very young Elijah Wood is terrific as Jules’ son Michael.  Joan Plowright dominates the screen as Sam’s wife Eva Krichinsky.

Randy Newman’s score is lovely, and works beautifully in the film.

I’m happy to have taken this trip back down memory lane with Avalon!

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