User Reviews

Izzy (Amy Irving) is a talented bookstore employee in New York City. Although it is a low paying position, she rubs elbows with some of the finest writers in the country, by setting up book talks. Despite her success, she is in her thirties and is not married. Izzy is fine with this but her Jewish grandmother is appalled that her sweet relative does not have a husband. Therefore, grandmother arranges for a matchmaker to search out some candidates for Izzy. The first one is a pickle vendor! What was grandma thinking?

This film, set partly in an old, traditional Jewish neighborhood in Manhattan, is a movie fan's delight. Irving, charming and pretty, sails right through her role with absolute believability. The rest of the cast is just perfect, including an early role for David Hyde Pierce. What a wonder, also, to get a glimpse of a preserved neighborhood, where time moves slowly. Those who adore romantic comedies must not put a viewing of this movie off any longer. Try catching it at the library or video store today.

Very nice ethnic movie about two people who seem to have problems finding a mate. The movie stereotypes Jewish romantic life in New York City. A matchmaker gets involved in matching up young people. The girl works in a book store. The boy works in a pickle store. He has always noticed here from afar. But, now it's time to put them together for life. Nicely acted movie. It does not seem to reflect how people really find each other in America and as such tends to play on an older 18th century concept of matchmaking for people to find their mates. This is more of a movie for a woman's fantasy than a man's concept of mate finding. But, what I like most about the actual story is that it's not about a rich man who finds a poor girl as in Pretty Woman! Here, both the boy and girl are representative of a similar upper low middle income and life style. Such makes it a believable story. Well acted by all cast members.

Larry de Illinois

This is my favorite movie of all time with an unbelievable cast of great character actors. I remember a New York reviewer at the time calling Amy Irving's performance "lukewarm" and I could not disagree more. Irving's performance and character epitomize the thirty-something single New York working woman trying to move up in the world. Irving's character is completely enraptured by the experience of being the book manager of a very prestigious uptown neighborhood book store and falls for the good-looking, European writer who is completely enraptured with himself! Riegert is the nice "pickleman" who any girl knows would make a great husband but the fireworks just don't go off for the girl. Any woman can definitely relate to the dilemma of being attracted to the charming, good-looking rogue but when you get right down to it, it is the everyday "picklemen" who stay true and truly make the world go round.

And I must say that this film captures the city better than any movie I have yet to see complete with crazy singing woman in crowded narrow hot dog joint, midage man struggling to play handball in local park, elderly women learning self-defense at community Y. Classic New York stuff! I could go on and on but do note far out performances by Sylvia Miles as the tacky matchmaker and Rosemary Harris, the great English actress, in a cameo near the end.

This movie strikes me, even after all this time, as being better than it was given credit for. The slow unfolding of the developing relationship is very well done, the characters are interesting and believable, and the grandma is fantastic. My only complaint - it would be really interesting to see how those two people handled an ongoing relationship. Talk about two worlds coming together -

Funny, but most of the comments here are raving about the movie, yet somehow

it only scored 6.7 stars at the time of this posting. To me, Crossing Delancey is one of the best romantic comedies ever made and ranks highly among my favorite movies in general.

Reizl Bozyk's performance as Bubbie Kantor is priceless. Amy Irving and Peter Riegert have amazing chemistry and all of the characters are very well defined and well portrayed, although I think the matchmaker was just a tad over-the-top, even for a yenta. But that's okay, The storyline is paced just right - a great flick to do popcorn by.

Though I would ordinarily give it an 8.5, I rated it 10 stars to bring the average closer to what the reviews (and my personal opinion) reflect.

Interesting, touching movie about appearances vs. outcomes. Amy Irving effectively plays an insecure woman who prefers the company of "art" people because she thinks it makes her a better person. Her mother thinks she knows better.

I like that this movie takes its time without being boring. Riegert is excellent and has an understated charisma, but his character is a little too metaphorical to make the story work. And the choice Irving has to make is solved a little bit too conveniently for my taste. But it's so sincere and sweet without being sappy that its faults don't matter all that much.

There are a set of films from the 1980s and 1990s that are very well done comedies about dating or finding one's true love. The best known one is MOONSTRUCK, but others are WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING and this one, CROSSING DELANCEY. Like MOONSTRUCK, CROSSING DELANCEY deals with an ethnic group. Cher's movie was a valentine about Italian Americans. CROSSING DELANCEY is a similar valentine about Jewish Americans in Manhattan.

Izzy (Amy Irving, in her best film part) is pretty happy. She is an independent woman who works in a famous private book shop, gets to be in contact with the leading writers of the day (she tells of speaking to Isaac Bashevits Singer at one point), and has a nice rent controlled apartment near Central Park. But her beloved grandmother Bubbe (Reizl Bozyk) is upset that Izzy is still single. She approaches the local, Lower East Side, matchmaker (Sylvia Miles) to find a groom for her granddaughter. Izzy is appalled at this, but she does come to dinner to meet the young man (Sam - Peter Riegert). He's a businessman (he and his brother run a pickle selling business on Delancey Street). Sam is a smart and nice guy, but Izzy is stand-offish because of her set of modern values.

The title refers to Izzy's assimilated views versus the standards of her grandmother and Sam. She does not want to be associated with old style lifestyles that represent an earlier era. But Sam tells her a story about a friend of his who was forced to buy a new hat when he lost his old cap "Crossing Delancey", and his life was changed was changed as a result (he got engaged in two days). Sam reinforces the story by sending Izzy a new hat (as though to suggest trying something different).

Izzy's state of mind is also confused because she has a sexual interest in a popular novelist named Anton Maas (Jerome Krabbe). Maas is certainly a gifted novelist, with a ready line of colorful patter that causes certain types of women (like Izzy) to swoon. But he is a little self-centered for all that, though Izzy does not notice this for awhile. But she does feel, after getting Sam's gift, that she should do something for him - she tries to set him up with a girlfriend. But she suddenly discovers he is a nice guy, and she begins to wonder if she has made a serious error.

This description of the film is inadequate, especially at it can barely touch the performances of Ms Bozyk (her only film lead role - after a lifetime in Yiddish theater she got this, and proved she should have had many more film performances to her credit), and Sarah Miles as the loud, overbearing, matchmaker Mrs. Hannah Mandlebaum. David Hyde Pierce appears as one of Izzy's fellow employees at the bookstore - an early role for the future Niles Crane. And Rosemary Harris appears as a "Marianne Moore" poet at a soirée, who makes the mistake of trying to patronize Krabbe (in his most sympathetic in the film - he returns the comment with interest). The movie has everything, including a version of a comedy chase (involving a taxicab with an unbelievably bad driver) and moments of hamish philosophy by Bubbe over a bottle of cherry herring. Altogether one perfect romantic comedy.

It's a safe bet that any romantic comedy promoting itself as "a funny movie about getting serious" is likely to be neither very funny nor particularly serious. But this one at least includes the novelty of a circumcision scene, and the poor victim (in his big screen debut) exhibits more honest emotion than any of the primary characters, including Amy Irving as a modern, unmarried New Yorker who moves among the uptown literary elite but can't quite sever her ties to the Lower East Side. The film, not unlike its heroine, is unnervingly passive and vacillating, a thirty-something exercise in shallow emotional distress with not enough conflict to keep it interesting. Will she fall in love with self-centered, best-selling novelist Jeroen Krabbe or a sincere but unexciting pickle maker (Peter Riegert) with hidden depths? The outcome shouldn't come as a surprise: Irving and the pickle man were obviously made for each other, but when she finally kisses him it's with no more conviction than in anything else her character does in the film.

PERSONAL NOTE: I saw this in the movie theater at University Square Mall in Tampa Florida, around Christmas of 1988.

On to the review...

Being that the first best date movie is 'When Harry Met Sally', this flick is a STRONG second. It moves along at an unhurried pace, we see the conflict Amy Irving's character faces, Peter Riegert as always delivers, the supporting cast is great, and we enjoy a nice dose of 'The Jewish Grandma'.

The pace and "feel" of this movie is near perfect.

Also, it's interesting that BOTH "Crossing" and "Harry" use the tune "It Had To Be You" in them.

AT LAST!!! IT'S Available IN DVD!!!!

Isabelle Grossman (Amy Irving) is a 33 year old Jewish girl working at a New York bookstore. She is enamored with author Anton Maes (Jeroen Krabbé) who she meets at the bookstore party. She loves her life on the edge of the intellectual world. Her parents are in Florida. Her beloved Bubbie or grandmother gets local matchmaker Hannah Mandelbaum to set her up. She's introduced to Sam Posner (Peter Riegert) who owns a pickle shop. She's not interested at first and even tries to set him up with her friend Marilyn surreptitiously.

This is the anti-single gal rom-com. Her single life is somewhat sad. The movie takes little digs like all the lonely looking women around the salad bar. Yet she's always proclaiming her love of her life. It's a rom-com that can cut a little too close. Amy Irving is very lovely and loving. Peter Riegert has the sincerity but needs a bit more charm. There are some funny moments and some very poignant ones. The ending is a bit too abrupt as if the movie ran out of film. This movie has a point of view and has a compelling romance.

Isabelle, played by Amy Irving, is an attractive thirtysomething single woman without much depth or character. She has a job at a bookstore where she gets to meet some interesting authors, including a charming but slick Dutch author. And there is a guy she sleeps with occasionally (old boyfriend? neighbor? married?) Her grandmother, with the help of a matchmaker, tries to fix her up with Sam, played by Peter Riegert, a nice guy who sells pickles in her old neighborhood on the Lower East Side, a neighborhood she feels she has outgrown. We all know who she is drawn to, and who she will end up with. The movie of course puts the characters through hell before we reach the inevitable conclusion, but I gave it 5 stars because my wife and I talked about the movie for 45 minutes after it was done. It brought up a lot of issues, as I was 31 in 1988, when this movie was made, and I lived through the whole nice guy experience. Sam becomes more interesting as the movie progresses, displaying hidden depths- and making us wonder why he is drawn to such a shallow woman as Isabelle. Is it just because he likes her looks? He's better than that. There are some funny scenes, some good lines from Sam, her Grandmother (Bubbie) and the matchmaker- but the movie is about her journey, and Sam becomes just a prop, given the unlikely attraction. At least there is the contrast between the old Jewish ways of Bubbie and the matchmaker, and Isabelle's more modern sensibilities, to give it some redeeming social value. I didn't like the movie, would not recommend it, but it did lead to an interesting discussion and a rare IMDB review from me.

It might be ten years since last I saw Crossing Delancey. We wandered into the video store tonight and were more than desperate to find just one movie we were willing to take a chance on, and I spotted this gem.

Seriously: this one ages well, like a good wine. It's got only better - by that I mean that after time, one picks up the subtleties even more.

It's just sensational.

The other movie we rented is a Disney action flick. We're waiting to put it in, because we know we are going to be disappointed after this, and we want to savour it a little while more.

That's about the best you can say about any movie.

10 out of 10.

I bought this movie waaaay back when it first came out on video. Sometimes I'll go for months and months without watching it, but when I do, I always enjoys it. It's fun look back to the late 80's.

The only problem I have with this flick is Sam. He needs a major makeover! Yes, I know that he is down-to-earth, real, sensible, confident guy, but a decent haircut and a pair of 501 Levi jeans would do wonders for him! His wardrobe looks like it was plucked from the bargin bin at Salvation Army. Loose those ugly, baggy utility pants and put on a pair of jeans, please, lol! Izzy's wardrobe is pretty bad, too. Dull, drab colors. Fortunately, her clothes get better as the movie progresses. Her hair looks like it's taking over the planet, not her co-worker's (Chilchilea Monk,) lol!

If you come to this deadpan, soft touch romantic comedy with your expectations in check you might enjoy it's modest pleasures. Amy Irving is assured and winning in the lead; but there is a remote quality to the character we never quite warm to. When She realizes She is behaving real stupidly, we have been so far ahead of her for so long we don't quite buy it. For someone who loves language and books; She never has a great deal to say.

The rest of the cast all do a fine job, as does folk rock legend Suzy Roche in her as of yet only movie. It is unfortunate Silver has not gotten a chance to do more; She has a real nice touch with comedy. This came through even in her minor "Big Girls Don't Cry." Along with Betty Thomas, She deserved more chances and better scripts.

"Crossing Delancey" is a heartwarming romantic comedy, but it's so much more than that. It's a masterpiece in miniature, one of those miraculous movies that gets everything right: it's beautiful to look at, pure pleasure to watch, a moment-in-amber time capsule of a place, time, and community; it's an artistic success; it's deep, it's funny, and it makes you feel good. "Crossing Delancey" isn't "War and Peace," it's a small story about one woman and her one decision, but faithfulness to tiny details results in depth.

The 1980s Manhattan of Isabelle, (Amy Irving) a thirty-something, well-educated, underemployed single Jewish woman, is so faithfully recreated the film feels like a well-made documentary. A rabbi who is on screen for mere moments is so believable I googled the actor to find out if he was a real rabbi. There is a kid selling used books on the sidewalk who is so convincing as a kid selling used books I wondered if he weren't some merchant they just found in his street-side stall and immediately inserted into the movie.

Jeroen Krabbe as arrogant author Anton Maes is so believable I want to reach through the screen and smack him. Just one scene, a literary soiree where Krabbe glares at a poetess as she condescendingly advises him to write something in his native language is worth the price of admission. Krabbe's face is partly obscured by his hand; all you see are his eyes. Their murderous look is as mesmerizing as a venomous snake.

Peter Riegert packs what could have been a dreary role – that of a pickle salesman – with fascination, subtle intelligence, and heart. Every character is perfectly cast; every performance is pitch perfect; everyone is the embodiment of the type of person a real Isabelle would have met in her real life.

When I do rewatch this movie, I have to watch it over and over, just to cherish every little morsel: the Jamaican cabbie, the steam room anecdote, the heavily made-up street singer who enters a hot dog shop and sings "One Enchanted Evening" with an oracle's intensity, the delivery of the line, "four men and a cabbage;" even just the names of minor characters, "Cecilia Monk" "Pauline Swift" – and their hairdos – are to be savored.

The sets are equally, painstakingly, perfect. Just the signage alone: "A joke and a pickle for only a nickel," and "Schapiro's: the wine you can almost cut with a knife," and, in Isabella's bookstore, the sign for "cashier" is shot so that it looks like "hier," French for "yesterday," appropriate for a movie focused on the past and the bittersweet passage of time.

Isabelle lives in available-male-shortage Manhattan. She's nagged by loneliness, her grandmother, and her biological clock. She sleeps with a married, handsome neighbor who offers her nothing but one-night stands. She yearns for a glamorous author she's met at the bookstore where she works.

Her grandmother fixes her up with a "pickle man," and Isabelle twists and turns for the rest of the film, weighing the advantages of a solid guy who might treat her lovingly, versus the attractions of a glamorous novelist who excites her. Isabelle's struggle is intimate and unique, played out in the microcosms of the formerly Yiddish Lower East Side and suave uptown Manhattan literati, but it's universal, as well. Dreamers everywhere must calculate whether to invest in the near, solid and familiar, or risk everything with the attractive and impossible-to-reach shooting star, and must face those moments when what had seemed attractive suddenly looks toxic, and what had seemed common suddenly reveals its hidden beauties.

I found this movie years after it was out ... a real classic now for me. The characters are genuine ( I love Bubbie! )and very interesting. The music is a treat as well as I found myself singing to it, a montage of 80's music. The movie takes a few jabs at the narcissistic quirks of the artistic world and conflicting egos. There is a careful story plot around the conflict of "fame" versus "character" and Amy Irving's character slowly sees past the hype and notes the person. The matchmaker is a hoot! and makes a good compliment to the Grandmother. I was disappointed to see that this was the only movie for Bubbie (Reizl Bozyk) because she really is the glue that keeps the story going. Peter Riegert makes an excellent pickle man! One movie I can watch over and over!

The thing I liked most about this movie was the writing. There are parts in the film that are exceptional, such as when the guy tells Isabelle (the protagonist) a story about a friend and his hat. The story he tells is simple, but says so much about his character. I liked the conflict with Isabelle, as she decides whether she likes him or not, despite all his shortcomings (he works in a pickle store, he isn't an author).

You can understand why she would be interested in "the author" over him, seeing that she works in a bookstore.

What I didn't like about the film is that the two lead characters aren't stand-out performances. Especially the pickle guy, he says his lines in an amateur fashion.

If you like this movie (and it is good), then I recommend "Moonstruck".

I genuinely do not understand the good reviews of this movie. Were the film makers trying to make the most unlikable lead character possible? She makes the wrong choice at every turn and never actually learns anything. Bubby is the only reason to watch this film.

This is one of my favorite movies. Amy Irving shines as the hesitant young woman being wooed by the very appealing Peter Riegert, owner of a pickle store. Her delightful but meddlesome Jewish grandmother, whom she calls "Bubby," is worth watching all by herself and reminded me of my own equally feisty Greek grandmother. Irving lovingly interacts with Bubby but seems resistant to her well-meaning advice. Irving seems to know that Riegert is a nice guy but cannot get past his unglamorous profession. As the story unfolds, their would-be romance is complicated by a writer that Irving meets at the bookstore she works in. The writer, played by Jeroen Krabbe, represents the more glamorous literary lifestyle that Irving aspires to, casting a big shadow over the earnest pickle salesman. Comic relief is provided by the marriage broker, Mrs. Mandelbaum, who tries to get Irving and Riegert together. Keep the Alka-Seltzer handy, though; watching her eat is a horrifying experience. This is a movie I never tire of. Underlying the humor and the uncertain romance is the sense that these are good people and that the strength of family and tradition run deep.

Its romantic lite but does raise some issues. Do the children of immigrant ethnic families ever shake their ghetto roots? Do you have to move away to ditch the old baggage? By ghetto, I mean any ethnic neighborhood with its old-world mores. There are some strengths in these places but also some definite baggage.

My family is Italian, and truth be told the compulsory family emphasis drove me nuts. The continual harping on food, the role of the Catholic church. It was suffocating to me. Of course, the American Experience is kind of shallow too. Its blah like. Roast beef? I mean it's only a slab of meat, my friends.

In addition, is the pressure to marry and have kids? A reason to settle for the pickle guy? Yes, he does have other qualities. Her real yen is for that self-centered writer user. He is a bad choice.

Family pressure can be stifling. If most of them dont move on or elsewhere, their influence can be profound.

Is a professional woman complete without marriage and kids? . I would say its your life, live it. If it's wrong, it was your choice.

I know nothing about this ethnic NY area. It may not exist today. Little Italy's still exist, but like Boston's North End they are not what they were. My own grandfather immigrated to the US in 1903. He had no desire to return to the old country. He did work in the almost exclusively Italian community. My father moved away from that. I moved away still further. I think that resonated to me in this movie.

Single men and women in a Jewish neighborhood of New York city struggle to find their soul mate. Amy Irving plays a 30 something single women named Isabelle Grossman who works in a dinosaur Book Store in which she and the stores owner hold book review parties upstairs where wine is served and the pompous party guests gloat about how shallow their miserable lives really are as they tell meaningless stories that no one will remember the next day.

When Isabelle is set up by her grandmother on a blind date to a nice Jewish man named Sam Posner (Peter Riegert) who inherited his fathers Kosher deli which specializes in kosher pickles, Isabelle must have had to much wine to drink at her latest book party as she brushes the classy Sam Posner and his pickle cart off as being beneath her. When Isabelle realizes she may have been to quick to brush Sam off she agrees to go out on a second date with him, but as with many couples when one of the two love birds is still looking for something better she stands Sam up. That happened to me one time when I was a young man and trust me I can relate.

This scene where Sam gets stood up for all the wrong reasons by Isabelle is critical to the films context about relationships, and it will keep your interest if you have not yet seen the film to see for yourself how Sam handles Isabelle's brush off.

I give the film a 5 out of 10 IMDB rating. I give Isabelle a 2 out of 10 and I would dump her fast than a slippery kosher pickle.