Reviews (5)

Great Drama
I really enjoyed this film because it showed the other side of a holocaust survivor and her family. There aren't many films made about what happened after the war to survivors of the holocaust. This film tells a good story about how a family deals with the issue. Hallmark always makes warm and touching movies that everyone can enjoy.

Very emotional & very well acted
Great acting...they didn't seem like actors or actresses because they played their parts so well they seemed to be exactly who they're supposed to be in the movie.

It starts out a little slow, but it gets much better, and really speaks to your heart. I was crying at some sad and emotional places, and others in my family were, too.

Is Joseph Sargent jewish?
As much as I admired the work director Joseph Sargent did on The Long Island Incident, there is an essential falseness in this Hallmark television production of Barbara Lebow's Off-Broadway Play A Shayna Maidel. A lot of this can be attributed to Lebow since her play is full of banal life lessons, but Sargent doesn't help by removing the exoticism of the Jewishness of the central characters. It's as if we have to be convinced that Judaism is just a regular religion, even if the language can sound funny and people dress oddly. I suppose this approach is relevant to Lebow's concern of what it means when a Jew assimilates, but it's also awfully disappointing. A tale of escape from the gas chambers, a letter kept despite a stay in a concentration camp, and the psychology of why the title character has a fear of intimacy is Lebow at her weakest. The latter point is particularly hokey, and we laugh thinking lucky for her her boyfriend isn't pushing for sex, though him being a window dresser may have something to do with it. And Ellis Island is presented more like an airport lounge than the sanctuary it is thought of. The best things going here are Amanda Plummer as the sister of "Miss Rose White" Kyra Sedgwick, and Maximillian Schell as Kyra's papa, since both actors bring some much needed messy feelings to the otherwise pristine happenings. Schell is so intense that we actually anticipate a darker family secret than the one revealed. As Sedgwick's spikey boss at Macy's, Penny Fuller also provides some edge, but DB Sweeney, Maureen Stapleton, and Milton Selzer are only there to react. Sedgwick may have the accent right and looks pretty in the period fashions but her overall blandness makes us long for her to lose the assimilation whitebread. Look out for Gina Gershon in a tiny part.

A great film
Both Kyra Sedgewick and Amada Plummer deliver Oscar worthy performances. After you have watched the film you will say out loud, "what an incredible movie". It is great for all ages, it is definately worth investing two hours in.

the best movie ever!!!
simply the best movie ever. get it today. everybody from teenagers to old great-great-grandparents love this movie. (just be sure to have a box of kleenex handy) ... Read more

Reviews (1)

very powerful story for women.
All women, Black or White should view this film. All female teens should also watch this film. It tells the truth about trying to make it in the world of entertainment and all of the characters make a needed change. I loved the film! ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Great Drama
I really enjoyed this film because it showed the other side of a holocaust survivor and her family. There aren't many films made about what happened after the war to survivors of the holocaust. This film tells a good story about how a family deals with the issue. Hallmark always makes warm and touching movies that everyone can enjoy.

Very emotional & very well acted
Great acting...they didn't seem like actors or actresses because they played their parts so well they seemed to be exactly who they're supposed to be in the movie.

It starts out a little slow, but it gets much better, and really speaks to your heart. I was crying at some sad and emotional places, and others in my family were, too.

Is Joseph Sargent jewish?
As much as I admired the work director Joseph Sargent did on The Long Island Incident, there is an essential falseness in this Hallmark television production of Barbara Lebow's Off-Broadway Play A Shayna Maidel. A lot of this can be attributed to Lebow since her play is full of banal life lessons, but Sargent doesn't help by removing the exoticism of the Jewishness of the central characters. It's as if we have to be convinced that Judaism is just a regular religion, even if the language can sound funny and people dress oddly. I suppose this approach is relevant to Lebow's concern of what it means when a Jew assimilates, but it's also awfully disappointing. A tale of escape from the gas chambers, a letter kept despite a stay in a concentration camp, and the psychology of why the title character has a fear of intimacy is Lebow at her weakest. The latter point is particularly hokey, and we laugh thinking lucky for her her boyfriend isn't pushing for sex, though him being a window dresser may have something to do with it. And Ellis Island is presented more like an airport lounge than the sanctuary it is thought of. The best things going here are Amanda Plummer as the sister of "Miss Rose White" Kyra Sedgwick, and Maximillian Schell as Kyra's papa, since both actors bring some much needed messy feelings to the otherwise pristine happenings. Schell is so intense that we actually anticipate a darker family secret than the one revealed. As Sedgwick's spikey boss at Macy's, Penny Fuller also provides some edge, but DB Sweeney, Maureen Stapleton, and Milton Selzer are only there to react. Sedgwick may have the accent right and looks pretty in the period fashions but her overall blandness makes us long for her to lose the assimilation whitebread. Look out for Gina Gershon in a tiny part.

A great film
Both Kyra Sedgewick and Amada Plummer deliver Oscar worthy performances. After you have watched the film you will say out loud, "what an incredible movie". It is great for all ages, it is definately worth investing two hours in.

the best movie ever!!!
simply the best movie ever. get it today. everybody from teenagers to old great-great-grandparents love this movie. (just be sure to have a box of kleenex handy) ... Read more

Reviews (1)

very powerful story for women.
All women, Black or White should view this film. All female teens should also watch this film. It tells the truth about trying to make it in the world of entertainment and all of the characters make a needed change. I loved the film! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

very powerful story for women.
All women, Black or White should view this film. All female teens should also watch this film. It tells the truth about trying to make it in the world of entertainment and all of the characters make a needed change. I loved the film! ... Read more

Description

"Jesse, (Ken Gruz) a young would-be artist is cast adrift in the urban sprawl of a decaying East Coast city.The "strangers" he encounters are windows into that existence in all its humor, anger, and violence.Rob Tregenza's Talking To Strangers is one of the most stylistically audacious and critically praised dramatic feature debuts in American independent cinema.Each shot/sequence was filmed only once.The complexity and ground breaking cinematic originality of these shot/sequences has obtained widespread international acclaim. Talking To Strangers world premiere was at the Berlin International Film Festival, it also screened in the Edinburgh, and Toronto Festivals. In 1996, Jean-Luc Godard selected this film to screen and for him to discuss in the "Director's Spotlight" at the the Toronto International Film Festival. ... Read more