Alicia I love this movie so much

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

bhudgins64-853-288437 I have always liked this movie and am sorry it did not do as well as other Levinson films. It's obviously a Jewish family that is depicted although there are no specifically Jewish scenes, like lighting the candles or anything like that.As the family becomes more Americanized they move away from the family circle center. The suburbs and TV become the two most alienating forces. Armin Mueller-Stahl, Joan Plowright and Elijah Wood were all great.I particularly liked Aiden Quinn as the father although he is obviously not Jewish.I mention it as one of the Best American Movies about Immigrants on Associated Content.

fred-houpt There are several reasons I treasure this film. What lingers for me, because I play the piano, is Randy Newman's sentimental and delicate score. I noticed in a recent viewing that the editing placed the score in the background, which added subtle texture, whereas in the Pixar films he's done the soundtracks are more aggressively in your face (ears) so to speak. The haunting themes in Avalon I consider to be some of master Randy's finest, with only "Awakenings" topping the list.I had not realized how much of a family film this was, with no violence or vulgarity anywhere and frankly we don't miss it. The film is filled with nuances of ethnic inflections that capture the mannerisms in which people of that era communicated with each other. Sometimes the body language alone even was more hilarious and important than the actual dialogue.Having grown up in an environment not too far removed from the immigrant Polish Jewish one portrayed, I recognized many family dramas that were so familiar I could pick them out one by one. It is not that families don't eat at table and talk and squabble anymore. It is often the starting point in which they bring their heated conversations to a boil that has changed over the generations. Consider for example the focus on pooling family finances either as a yearly tithe towards favoured charities or the same channelling of resources to sponsor or subsidize the arrival of another relative stuck in Europe. Families today rarely have cause to consider their lives within this framework.The film is honest, charming, funny, sad and warm, by turns nostalgic and also quite descriptive of how European immigrants worked from nothing into (sometimes) very successful living conditions and levels of wealth and affluence. The generation of immigrants (not just Jewish) that fled the turmoils of Europe almost without exception came with very meagre resources. Pushing their children and encouraging their grandchildren to work hard, keep focused and to excel the standards that they lived helped propel the higher levels of success and affluence. All of that drama is given a proper map in this film.There are some very funny scenes in this film, none more touching than the famous turkey scene in which Lou Jacobi's character (and his wife) typically arrive late for a Thanksgiving Dinner, having travelled by car quite a distance, only to find that his younger brother has just cut the turkey. Outraged by this insult to his pride, screaming at his brother that he "cut the toikee" (accents included) and making a family fuss of huge over reaction, makes for very funny but recognizable stresses that many families I'm sure faced.Another thing that caught my attention is that Levinson almost completely bleached out the reality that these were Polish Jews. You can find maybe one line where someone responds to a sentence with Yiddish phrase, but it is spoken so quickly that unless you are aware of it you'll miss it entirely. No one is depicted going to synagogue or consulting a Rabbi. I find that a bit odd, considering that even if coming to Baltimore in 1914, the Jews were at that point more obviously Jewish, many men still wearing traditional head coverings. The only obvious sign of this being Jewish people are the exaggerated Jewish accents.Watch for very young Elijah Woods who is quite good for a little kid. The real stars give an understated performance, allowing the richness of the story to speak for itself. I love this film and could recommend it to those who need an uplifting family based drama. Excellent.

Lee Eisenberg What "Avalon" portrays seems like the sort of stories that we have often heard of immigrant families: the first generation comes to America and thinks that it's the greatest place, the second generation distances itself from its ancestry by changing the family name, and the third generation feels torn between these, and the question of what the fourth generation will do. Certainly the movie does a really good job showing not only that, but also the changing America of the post-war era (TV and the move to the suburbs). As for the schism, I guess that such things often happen in families. As a fourth-generation American born long after what the movie portrays, maybe I can't relate to it 100%, but it's still a movie that I recommend to everyone. Once again, Barry Levinson does a great job showing his native Baltimore.Starring Armin Mueller-Stahl, Joan Plowright, Aidan Quinn, Elizabeth Perkins, Kevin Pollak, Elijah Wood and Lou Jacobi.

MissyBaby How can I explain how much I loved this movie? I can't. I just can't. I love it so so much, I can't explain it. I came across this movie by somewhat of an accident last year sometime. I did a Netflix search for "The Mists of Avalon." No "Mists of Avalon," but instead an Aiden Quinn movie called simply "Avalon." I pushed it aside and didn't give it a second thought. 5 months or so ago I was just browsing the same sight, once again, "Avalon" popped up. I watched the trailer, thought it looked good and put it on my queue list. It sat forever and ever, so I deleted it. Once again never giving it a second thought.Then 2 months ago I became very interested in the actor Tom Wood (Noah Newman from The Fugitive and U.S. Marshals and the adult Michael from this film.) I, of course, went to Netflix and did a search for him. "Avalon," however did not show up on the list. I returned my attention to a list I had written with all of the movies he's made listed. I typed "Avalon" in the search box and sure enough, it was the same "Avalon." I immediately put it in the queue and bumped it up to the top spot. A day or so later we received "Avalon" in the mail and I waisted no time in watching it. I was immediately in love with the characters and the way the family bonded together. My family is a lot like that, OK, we're not immigrants (oh somewhere down the line I'm sure we are, but that's not the point), we're not Jewish (we're in fact Missionary Baptists) and we don't live in a clump (ok, most of us do, but a few cousins and me and my parents live apart from the clump.). We have those conversations at the dinner table, we have those conversations at Thanksgiving, and Christmas and things like that.I was so touched by the simplicity but emotional impact of the simple line "I came to America in 1914....." I couldn't help but burst into tears.****SPOILERS**** My favorite scene had to be the scene where they had the family circle meeting at Gabriel's house and Eva kept saying it was "like a furnace in here!" And then without warning "An elephant just walked by the window." So funny the first time you see it.And of course I had to love the last scene when Michael and his son Sam went to see Grandpa Sam. I was especially touched by this scene because that is the same shape my grandfather got into shortly before he passed away last year. I did cry and remembered all the times my parents dragged me to the nursing homes and hospitals to see him, and I began to miss him again.So I guess the reason I loved this movie so much is because after seeing it the first time, Sam sort of brought my Grandpa back to me for a little while. The way he acted, the way he would take control of a situation, the way he told stories....Thank you Barry Levinson for that, even if no one else cares. You did a good thing for me. The final moments of the film made me think of what I'd tell my kids when I'm older....Michael and Little Sam walking out of the nursing home and Michael beginning Sam's story and passing it down...."He came to America in 1914......"Definitely watch this movie. Don't let it pass you by. It's amazing. Take my word for it.