It’s the Star Power of the Likes of Amy Irving and Peter Riegert That Makes ‘Crossing Delancey’ Memorable
The film is being released on Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection and, more than anything else, this selection points to how even the most stringent cineastes are capable of being mushballs.
Listening to the actor Peter Riegert tell it, his role in Joan Micklin Silver’s “Crossing Delancey” (1988) resulted in his being propositioned by more women than at any other point in his life. Mr. Riegert’s character was unpretentious, generous, kind, and funny, and mothers and daughters and grandmothers couldn’t help themselves: What wasn’t to love about Sam the pickle man?
This says more about Mr. Riegert than it does about his scandalously underwritten character. Although Sam Posner comes with a backstory, it’s pretty bare bones: The pickle man inherited the business from his father, washes his hands with vanilla and milk to rid himself of the odor of vinegar, and exhibits little in the way of an inner life. Sam is manipulated by the movie’s main players because the story demands it of him. He’s a cog in director Silver’s machine — or, rather, Susan Sandler’s screenplay.
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