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 .
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 .