Barry, Berry, Bury

With my midwestern accent, I have never really been able to differentiate when I pronounce these three words. But my “Barry” certainly can.

I was reminded of this over the weekend. We had our friends Ellen and Barry over for Shabbat lunch and had a lovely afternoon. They brought over fresh blueberries. Then yesterday we had a lovely brunch with our friends Ava (one of Barry’s radiation oncology residents) and her fiancé Jason, who were joined by Jason’s parents, whose names are Ruth and….you guessed it, Barry! For dessert? Of course, there was a lovely platter filled with berries.

After brunch, since we were already in The City, we headed over to Lincoln Plaza Cinemas to see the new film, “Menashe.” We arrived during the previews and, much to our surprise, the theater was completely packed! Unbeknownst to us when we decided to go and see this film, there was a discussion with the director and the lead actor following the screening. It is always interesting to attend such events, but it is not every day you see someone who has never been to a movie theater in his life standing in front of a movie audience talking about the film in which he is the lead actor!

I struggled with this movie because it is almost entirely in Yiddish (a language in which I know only a few expressions) and, having arrived so late, we were only able to find seats in one of the last few roads, from which the small subtitles were mostly incomprehensible to me.

Fortunately, this movie is somewhat understandable even without the dialogue. The movie, apparently based to some extent on the lead actor’s life, tells about a rather ornery and selfish Chassidic man whose wife has died, leaving behind a nine-year-old son, Rieven (which I assume is a Yiddish version of the name Reuven, or Rubin). The Rebbe of the Chassidic sect insists that the young boy live with an aunt and uncle and their children unless and until Menashe remarries. Despite his many blunders, Menashe does love his son, but his marriage to Rieven’s mother had not been a warm and happy one, and he is reluctant to go through this again.

We could not help but be reminded of the 1979 film, “Kramer vs. Kramer,” with Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep. Mr. Kramer had also been completely absent from the day to day responsibilities of raising a child, let alone mundane matters like preparing French toast. But he quickly came up to speed and managed to be a fine father, even at a time when fatherhood was not quite the hands-on activity we take for granted today. 

This film has received quite a bit of critical acclaim but apparently has not made its way to Rotten Tomatoes. It is a touching story worth seeing.

Love,

Rebecca