A Fish in the Bathtub (Joan Micklin Silver, 1998)

Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller in A Fish in the Bathtub

Cast: Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, Mark Ruffalo, Jane Adams, Missy Yager, Paul Benedict, Doris Roberts, Louis Zorich, Phyllis Newman, Val Avery, Bob Dishy, Pamela Gray. Screenplay: John Silverstein, David Chudnovsky, Raphael D. Silver. Cinematography: Daniel Shulman. Production designer: Deana Sidney. Film editor: Meg Reticker. Music: John Hill. 

Joan Micklin Silver's A Fish in the Bathtub has some funny lines, but an overall shrillness makes it not as much fun as it wants to be. The scene in which Sam (Jerry Stiller) yells "Shut up!" repeatedly at Molly (Anne Meara), his wife of 40 years, at a card party where their closest friends are gathered is a touch too painful. The rest of the film is a slow and sometimes awkward process of reconciliation after Molly decides she's put up with too much -- including the large carp that Sam has inexplicably brought home and keeps in the spare bath -- and moves in with their son, Joel (Mark Ruffalo), and his wife, Sharon (Missy Yager). Joel and Sharon have  been having their problems, too: She wants another child and he's not so sure, plus he's indulging in a flirtation with one of his real estate clients -- an unnecessary subplot. The actors are all pros, and they do what they can with the material, but the movie feels like an overextended TV sitcom episode. 

Chilly Scenes of Winter (Joan Micklin Silver, 1979)

Cast: John Heard, Mary Beth Hurt, Peter Riegert, Kenneth McMillan, Gloria Grahame, Nora Heflin, Jerry Hardin, Tarah Nutter, Mark Metcalf, Allen Joseph, Frances Bay, Griffin Dunne. Screenplay: Joan Micklin Silver, based on a novel by Ann Beattie. Cinematography: Bobby Byrne. Production design: Peter Jamison. Film editing: Cynthia Scheider. Music: Ken Lauber. 

Chilly Scenes of Winter is a kind of deconstructed screwball romantic comedy, meaning that it turns on the often comic efforts of a couple to overcome the dysfunction in their relationship. But the romance is soured and the comedy is darkened by circumstances they can't control, as well as their own egos. Initially released under the title Head Over Heels, it had a "happy ending" that felt unearned and it failed at the box office. Then writer-director Joan Micklin Silver revised the film a few years later, with a freeze-frame ending that left the protagonist in a kind of emotional limbo, and under the title of the Ann Beattie novel it was based on, it was better received. It's still full of cringe moments and skewed relationships, but in its own itchy way it makes dramatic sense. 

Crossing Delancey (Joan Micklin Silver, 1988)

Cast: Amy Irving, Peter Riegert, Jeroen Krabbé, Reizl Bozyk, Sylvia Miles, George Martin, John Bedford Lloyd, Claudia Silver, David Hyde Pierce, Rosemary Harris, Suzzy Roche, Amy Wright, Faye Grant. Screenplay: Susan Sandler, based on her play. Cinematography: Theo van de Sande. Production design: Dan Leigh. Film editing: Rick Shaine. Music: Paul Chihara. 

Crossing Delancey is a likable ethnic-flavored romantic comedy whose plot hinges on whether the protagonist (Amy Irving) will choose between a phony (Jeroen Krabbé) and a mensch (Peter Riegert). What do you think? As usual in films with a foregone conclusion, enjoyment depends on lively performances and amusing situations. There are many of the latter, including the reactions of people attending a bris and the pretensions of people at a literary soirée. Reizl Bozyk is the film's standout performer as the grandmother of the protagonist, Isabelle. This was the only screen role for Bozyk, a mainstay of the Yiddish theater, and she infuses the busybody Bubbe with warmth. Her desire to see her granddaughter married leads her to enlist a flamboyant matchmaker, somewhat overplayed by Sylvia Miles. Thus Isabelle, who works in a bookstore and might seem a better fit with the handsome novelist played by Krabbé, finds herself in the company of Sam, the pickle merchant played by Riegert. But even if he has to cover up the pickle smell by soaking his hands in milk and vanilla extract, Sam has more to recommend him than just being an eligible Jewish suitor. The worlds-colliding situations are a little obvious, and the theatrical origins of the film show, but director Joan Micklin Silver has a sure hand throughout the film. 

Hester Street (Joan Micklin Silver, 1975)

Cast: Carol Kane, Steven Keats, Mel Howard, Dorrie Kavanaugh, Doris Roberts, Stephen Strimpel, Lauren Friedman, Paul Freedman, Martin Garner, Leib Lensky, Zane Lasky, Zvee Scooler, Eda Reiss Merin. Screenplay: Joan Micklin Silver, based on a novel by Abraham Cahan. Cinematography: Kenneth Van Sickle. Production design: Stuart Wurtzel. Film editing: Katherine Wenning. Music: William Bolcom, Herbert L. Clarke. 

Gitl (Carol Kane) joins her immigrant husband Yankel (Steven Keats) in turn-of-the-century New York City, and discovers that he is no longer the modest, religiously observant man she knew in the old country. He has picked up American slang, while she speaks only Yiddish, and calls himself Jake while insisting that their son, Yossele (Paul Freedman) be called Joey. He has also taken up with a flashy Americanized woman named Mamie (Dorrie Kavanaugh). With the help of their neighbor, Mrs. Kavarsky (Doris Roberts), Gitl learns how to adapt to the new world, shed herself of Jake, and find a new, more suitable husband. Kane received an Oscar nomination for best actress in writer-director Joan Micklin Silver's first feature. Low-key, warm-hearted, and amusing, Hester Street evokes silent movies in its well-crafted depiction of the era in which it's set.