The depth and complexity of Barry Levinson's tribute to America's Golden Age can be summed up by granddad Armin Mueller-Stahl's words of wisdom to the younger generation: "if you stop remembering, you forget". The writer director himself seems to have forgotten how memory is always prone to sentimental distortion, and his long, loving portrait of a family in transition (ostensibly Levinson's own extended family) plays like a lazy daydream of paradise lost. It's a far richer film than the first two chapters of his Baltimore trilogy, with a screenplay spanning three generations and most of the 20th century, but the dramatic scope comes at the expense of detail, and Levinson's explanation for the post-war decline of the American family is thus never able to reach beyond the most obvious culprits: television and suburban malaise. With help from an excellent ensemble cast the film is finally able to achieve the bittersweet mood it strives for, but only after burying some genuine emotion underneath too many visual flourishes and a lot of distracting big budget gloss.

There are several reasons I treasure this film. What lingers for me, because I play the piano, is Randy Newman's sentimental and delicate score. I noticed in a recent viewing that the editing placed the score in the background, which added subtle texture, whereas in the Pixar films he's done the soundtracks are more aggressively in your face (ears) so to speak. The haunting themes in Avalon I consider to be some of master Randy's finest, with only "Awakenings" topping the list.I had not realized how much of a family film this was, with no violence or vulgarity anywhere and frankly we don't miss it. The film is filled with nuances of ethnic inflections that capture the mannerisms in which people of that era communicated with each other. Sometimes the body language alone even was more hilarious and important than the actual dialogue.Having grown up in an environment not too far removed from the immigrant Polish Jewish one portrayed, I recognized many family dramas that were so familiar I could pick them out one by one. It is not that families don't eat at table and talk and squabble anymore. It is often the starting point in which they bring their heated conversations to a boil that has changed over the generations. Consider for example the focus on pooling family finances either as a yearly tithe towards favoured charities or the same channelling of resources to sponsor or subsidize the arrival of another relative stuck in Europe. Families today rarely have cause to consider their lives within this framework.The film is honest, charming, funny, sad and warm, by turns nostalgic and also quite descriptive of how European immigrants worked from nothing into (sometimes) very successful living conditions and levels of wealth and affluence. The generation of immigrants (not just Jewish) that fled the turmoils of Europe almost without exception came with very meagre resources. Pushing their children and encouraging their grandchildren to work hard, keep focused and to excel the standards that they lived helped propel the higher levels of success and affluence. All of that drama is given a proper map in this film.There are some very funny scenes in this film, none more touching than the famous turkey scene in which Lou Jacobi's character (and his wife) typically arrive late for a Thanksgiving Dinner, having travelled by car quite a distance, only to find that his younger brother has just cut the turkey. Outraged by this insult to his pride, screaming at his brother that he "cut the toikee" (accents included) and making a family fuss of huge over reaction, makes for very funny but recognizable stresses that many families I'm sure faced.Another thing that caught my attention is that Levinson almost completely bleached out the reality that these were Polish Jews. You can find maybe one line where someone responds to a sentence with Yiddish phrase, but it is spoken so quickly that unless you are aware of it you'll miss it entirely. No one is depicted going to synagogue or consulting a Rabbi. I find that a bit odd, considering that even if coming to Baltimore in 1914, the Jews were at that point more obviously Jewish, many men still wearing traditional head coverings. The only obvious sign of this being Jewish people are the exaggerated Jewish accents.Watch for very young Elijah Woods who is quite good for a little kid. The real stars give an understated performance, allowing the richness of the story to speak for itself. I love this film and could recommend it to those who need an uplifting family based drama. Excellent.

Avalon is not really a movie that I would watch arbitrarily. Rather, it is a film I would like to see when I am in a patriotic or patient mood. It revolves around a traditional Irish family that tries to settle down in America and find promise in it's boundless opportunities. At times it was much too slow and sad, but the ending is extremely moving. The grandfather who may not be very influential on his son, becomes very close to his grandson. One of his favorite stories to tell this adventurous and open minded little boy is how he first came to America in 1914. This movie shows us how important family ties and traditions are, no matter what you do or where you go in life.

Although this film takes place 15 years before I was born, growing up in an ethnic family in the early 60's had changed very little.My family is Greek, but this film will appeal to any ethnic group especially first or second generation Americans. Back then we all still gathered at one member's home for holidays and on Sundays. We all dressed up (and still do) for church and holiday gatherings. Watching little Elijah Wood with his bow tie reminded me of myself at that age.Mr. Levinson through film, and Randy Newman through his haunting musical score did a magnificent job of recreating a world that has all but disappeared. A time when family was the center of our lives, children respected the adults and were expected to behave in a civilized manner, people didn't spend Sundays running all over town to football, soccer games etc, and the elder members of the family were revered instead of ignored or worse, placed in a home.We, those of us in the post-war generation would to well to look at this film as a guideline for how to bring values back into our lives and realize that we all need to re-think our priorities.If you want to relive your childhood for 2 1/2 hours laugh one minute and cry the next, I HIGHLY recommend this film