|
|
April 2, 1999/16 Nisan 5759, Vol. 51, No. 27
'A Walk on the Moon' is fun adventure
ANNE BRADY
Managing Editor
Attention, attention. The blouse man is on the premises."
If only Pearl Kartrowitz, the protagonist in the film "A Walk on the Moon," had known how her life would be disrupted and forever chang-ed if she ventured into the trailer of the man who sold blouses at the Catskills' bungalow colony she visited every summer, maybe she wouldn't have gone in.
Or maybe she would have run, not strolled, into that unknown, exciting lair of the mysterious Walker Jerome, commonly known by the moniker assigned him by the bungalow announcer: "the blouse man."
It was the summer of 1969, when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon and thousands flocked to a week-long musical extravaganza remembered by where it was held, Woodstock, N.Y.
It was the era of sex, drugs and rock-and-roll, and Pearl Kartrowitz is a 32-year-old mother of two (including a budding teen-age daughter) whose big excitement until then had been an occasional ice-cream sandwich, and making matzo balls with her mother-in-law.
For Pearl, who carried a legion of unrealized dreams in her head, an affair with the blouse man would mean sex under a waterfall.
"A Walk on the Moon" is an entertaining yet thoughtful romp back in time, to a period when young people wanted to do something that mattered with their lives, and no one wanted to waste a precious moment. It was a simpler time - no World Wide Web, no AIDS, no abortion clinics (at least not legal ones). Just Vietnam.
In contrast with certain movies and television shows set in the same time frame, in this film no props or expressions seem out of place. "Walk" genuinely feels and looks like 1969. True to the era, women color their hair with Clairol, smoke cigarettes and wear frosty lipstick.
Julie Kavner is priceless as the voice of the bungalow announcer. She has by far the funniest role, despite the fact that we never see her on camera. When she announces over the public address system the arrival of the "knish man," or an upcoming slideshow of a guest's son's bar mitzvah, or the fact that Pearl's daughter, Allison (Anna Paquin, "The Piano"), is "a woman now" (she's having her first period), we begin to wonder how we function today without a voice over a PA telling us where to go and what to do.
The central plot of the movie concerns Pearl's love affair with Walker. It seems that every summer the Kartrowitzes (Pearl, her young son, Allison and Pearl's mother-in-law) leave their Brooklyn home to "vacation" at Dr. Fleigel's Bungalow Colony. Pearl's husband, Marty, comes up for weekends, then returns to the city during the week to work, leaving Pearl alone with other housewives. It's the perfect set-up for an affair with a traveling salesman, especially when Marty, a TV repairman, gets trapped in the city on some weekends - firstly, when everyone is clamoring for his services so that they can watch the moon landing, and secondly, when traffic to Woodstock clogs the roads.
When the blouse man gives her kids licorice, reprimanding him is just the excuse Pearl needs to visit his mobile store and do a little flirting. She winds up with his phone number.
It is Marty's mother (Tovah Feldshuh) who ultimately uncovers the affair. When Pearl persists, after being admonished that "even if things are destined, a grown-up person, a mensch, can make a different choice," it's clear she probably wants to be exposed.
"Why didn't you screw the dress man? At least that way, you'd get a whole outfit," retorts Marty (Liev Schreiber) to his wife's confession, as he launches into a justifiable fit of anger.
Subplots revolve around Allison's finding her first boyfriend, who is worried about the prospect of being drafted, and her friendship with an Orthodox girl. All the inhabitants of the bungalows are Jewish - some Orthodox, some Reform, some not religious.
The film has one obvious flaw: Pearl has had two children and eats ice cream sandwiches, yet has a perfect body with perky breasts, a flat stomach and no stretch marks.
"A Walk on the Moon" from Miramax Films opens in theaters today (Friday, April 2).
|
