Director: Joan Micklin Silver
Screenplay: Susan Sandler
Based on the part by: Susan Sandler
Producers: Michael Nozik
Starring: Amy Irving, Peter Riegert, Jeroen Krabbé, Sylvia Miles
Year: 1988
Country: USA
BBFC Certification: PG
Duration: 97 mins
I ❤️ New York.
That’s not true. I started this review with a lie. I’ve never been anywhere near New York. Having been raised primarily in small British villages and as someone who has described provincial market towns as “bustling”, I’m pretty sure I would find New York overwhelming. I sometimes find myself saying phrases like “Upper West Side” or “Staten Island Ferry” out loud just for the way they feel in my mouth, but that speaks of an arms-length exoticism rather than an informed experience that could truly be professed as real ❤️. So no, I don’t ❤️ New York.
What I actually ❤️ is a cinematic dream of New York, a tapestry of moving images woven by Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese, the New York of Working Girl and Big, where Kevin McAllister is lost, where Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra are pitching woo and seeing sights, where giant marshmallow men are terrorising citizens and Snake Plissken is trying to escape. Give me a film set in New York, especially one that revels in its surroundings, and I’m happy for a couple of hours. I was delighted then to discover that Criterion were releasing Crossing Delancey, Joan Micklin Silver’s cult 80s Comedy about a New York bookstore employee’s romantic adventures against the backdrop of the Big Apple. Not only is Micklin Silver on my list of most underrated directors thanks to the trio of films that kicked off her career (Hester Street, Between the Lines and Chilly Scenes of Winter) but the Rom-Com genre, thanks to its gentle pacing and soft focus serenity, is perhaps my favourite way to experience that celluloid city I so love. Give me Annie Hall, give me When Harry Met Sally and now, give me Crossing Delancey.
Adapted by Susan Sandler from her own play of the same name, Crossing Delancey tells the story of Isabelle Grossman, a young Jewish bookstore employee whose job allows her to mingle with the New York literati. Although she is enchanted by a preening author, Izzy finds herself strongarmed by her Bubbe and a matchmaker she has hired into meeting Sam Posner, the owner of a street corner pickle stand. Dismissive of Sam and the simple life he could offer her, Izzy attempts to set him up with her friend but, in the process, becomes intrigued by his unpretentious sincerity. Caught between her inclinations and prejudices, her independence and romanticism, Izzy struggles to find her true heart’s desire as she tries to negotiate her various relationships without wreaking too much havoc on those around her.
I adored Crossing Delancey but it is not without its flaws. In its depiction of the intellectual circle in which Izzy moves as something she needs to at least partially reject in order to find happiness, the film feels at risk of a reductive inverse snobbery as it prods her towards the pickle man. In particular, Jeroen Krabbé’s self-obsessed author is written as far too broadly obnoxious for audiences to ever see him as much more than an obvious plot device to be eventually flicked into the gutter. Still, in its adherence to certain comfortingly recognisable Rom-Com tropes, Crossing Delancey buys itself the time, space and instantaneous investment that allows its soothingly paced musings to register with a lightness of touch that feels refreshing. Although based on a play, the film doesn’t feel remotely stagebound. Micklin Silver’s use of New York locations makes Crossing Delancey feel big in a way that transcends its modest budget. Occasionally it tries to go too big, such as a baffling few minutes spent in a cab with a Jamaican driver and his instructor who seem to have careered in from a racially-iffy goofball 80s blockbuster and who disappear as abruptly as they arrived. These interruptions to Crossing Delancey’s equilibrium are few and far between but they are rather hard to blow past given what a delicately established mood characterises the rest of the film.
Interestingly, though categorised as a Romantic Comedy, Crossing Delancey’s main storyline plays as more of a Drama. The throughline of Izzy and Sam’s faltering path towards love is beautifully understated in a way that allows Sandler and Micklin Silver to pepper in a series of colourful supporting players who provide the humour. Some are pivotal, such as the sly but loving Bubbe, wonderfully played by Reizl Bozyk in her sole major big screen role, while others appear for only one scene but all of them help create Crossing Delancey’s sweetly oddball world. Though we see glimpses of several different cultures, this is a film with a very Jewish heart. This ethnic specificity often sees Crossing Delancey compared with Moonstruck, which emphasised is Italian identity, but I found that film unbearable in its broad and loudly delivered stereotypes, which prevented me from seeing any of its characters as real people. By contrast, Amy Irving and Peter Riegert’s Izzy and Sam feel abundantly human at all times. If Bozyk is the scene stealer, Irving in particular provides the unshowy backbone that ensures there are scenes there to be stolen in the first place.
It is perhaps easy to understand why Crossing Delancey hasn’t quite endured in people’s memories to the same degree as many of its contemporaries. It isn’t as hilarious as When Harry Met Sally or as bluntly romantic as Sleepless in Seattle but this is down to deliberate choices rather than accidental failures. In prioritising issues of personal identity, refreshingly favouring the female lead, over simple wish fulfilment fantasy, Crossing Delancey carves out its own niche. As Rom-Coms generally became less cerebral and more predictable, Micklin Silver’s film slipped into obscurity, where most of her oeuvre bewilderingly resides. While there’s something to be said for Rom-Coms as comfort food, Crossing Delancey is a timely reminder of an era when they just as frequently relished the acquired taste of a good pickle.
Crossing Delancey is released on 4K UHD and Blu-ray by Criterion on 24 February 2025. The scant extras include an enjoyable, newly-produced half-hour lookback on the film’s production and an audio interview with Joan Micklin Silver which unfortunately suffers from variable sound quality. The special features in full are as follows:
New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by cinematographer Theo van de Sande, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
New program on the making of the film featuring actors Amy Irving and Peter Riegert and screenwriter Susan Sandler
Audio interview from 1988 with director Joan Micklin Silver
Trailer
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by critic Rachel Syme
New cover by Samantha Dion Baker
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