If you want to see an almost perfect demonstration of the proposition that film is a directors's medium, BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS is the movie to see. The performances are uniformly dreadful, leading the viewer to conclude that, without decent direction, actors are largely incompetent. And, in addition to his overall ineptness, Gene Saks , the director, has such a tin ear that he allows his actors to speak in accents incomprehensible as the Yiddish-inflected New Yorkese that presumably was intended. Furthermore, the audience is invited to believe that this story is something of a transcription of Neil Simon's boyhood experiences. We therefore are asked to accept that this tale is a reasonable approximation of the attitudes and values of a first-generation working-class Jewish family of the 1930s. Yet one of the key elements of the narrative presents a situation that is virtually unbelievable, which is that the family accepts and even encourages the prospect of a serious relationship between one of its members and an alcoholic Irish Catholic. It's also doubtful that the suitor's mother would have viewed her son's interest in a Jewish widow with the equanimity her character displays, but that just demonstrates Simon's cluelessness about a world beyond his own. But what's his excuse for such egregious ignorance of the one he purports to be representing? Either he doesn't really understand the culture he's writing about, or he's distorting it to advance his plot. Neither works to the story's advantage, and either option undermines the integrity of the narrative .

Not! But for the young Jewish Eugene (Jonathan Silverman, taking over the role he played on Broadway, originated by Matthew Broderick), he's living in a much more innocent time, where his biggest challenges include making it across the street with the glass milk bottle in his hand that his mother made him return for the deposit, keeping his drawings of the female anatomy out of the hands of his older brother, and trying to control his lust for his sexy cousin (Lisa Waltz) and even his own widowed aunt (Judith Ivey). If this makes Eugene sound a bit sick or at least majorly weird, it gives him various characteristics and confirms his heterosexuality.The semi-autobiographical series of plays by Neil Simon seem stagy to some, but in an era of blockbusters, "Hamlet" on screen with Laurence Olivier would be stagy! Silverman's Eugene is surrounded by a wonderfully eccentric Jewish family, much like Woody Allen's clan in "Radio Days", just miles away at Far Rockaway. The wonderful Blythe Danner allows her beautiful face to be dowdied as the hard working mother with a hidden bitterness towards her sister, Bob Dishy as the quietly understanding father whom everybody goes to for sage advice; Stacey Glick as the precocious sister (watch Alfred Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt" and see if you don't see a similarity with that family's youngest daughter, Anne) and Brian Drillinger is the troubled older brother who is faced with humiliation for standing up to his tyrannical boss. Ivey, one of the gems of stage, screen and television, totally reminds me of the lovable Dianne Wiest's character in "Radio Days" with her ever optimistic attitude that never fades even though romances come and go. Dishy, who played a couple of eccentric characters on "Golden Girls" ("Mr. Terrific", for example) is totally recognizable, but the usually sophisticated Danner (Will Truman's mother on "Will and Grace", DeNiro's wife in "Meet the Parents", etc.) bravely lets herself go, and gives a performance of massive strength and understatement.While "Radio Days" took place throughout World War II, this is set in the late 1930's, with mentions of Europe at War on the radio that Dishy demands that nobody touch. This is more of a linear plot line than Woody Allen's sketchy but hysterically funny film. The sweetness and less in your face crudeness of today's films helps make this stand out in a nostalgic yet not cloying manner of "We had a better life than you do today" way that some film makers remind us of. Ivey and Danner would ironically be reunited 15 years later for the first Broadway revival of "Follies". Teenagers and adolescents of the 30's and 40's in my opinion did have it better, with the Masked Avenger Ring and Jitterbugging a great predecessor to today's I-Pads, Cellphones and Crap Music.

Brilliant! Eugene is just like any 15 year old boy. Silverman comes out with some very funny lines with his mother : 'Theres a bone in my throat' 'THERE ARE NO BONES IN LOVER!' And when they are sat at the table at dinner Voice over-'The tension was so tense i would of cut my wrists but the liver had blunted the knifes'So if you haven't seen this film go and see right now.Go and search for and see the golden palace in the himalayes!

This is without a doubt one of Neil Simon's best plays turned movies. It's full of great characters, and memorable dialog. Johnathan Silverman makes a great screen version of young Eugene(he was played by Matthew Broderick on stage).This is the first of Simon's autobiographical trilogy, its followed by the wonderful "Biloxi Blues", and closes with the TV movie "Broadway Bound". If I had to say the movie has any flaws it would maybe be that characters sometimes usually speak in obvious dialog, but that's alright because it's great dialog. Rent this little gem, you won't be sorry!