Shifting points of view: the film seems to be about the two boys who are left at hard-as-nails Grandmothers'; though Richard Dreyfuss is top-billed, his story is really peripheral; and what emerges really is the journey of the sister, Mercedes Ruehl. 1940s Yonkers. Following the death of their mother, Brad Stoll (himself tragically to die of cancer aged only 20) and Mike Damus are dumped in the home of Irene Worth (a great performance - they're all good, actually. Coolidge is only known to us from Out At Sea and ended up mainly on TV), a German with a personality of iron. Ruehl is child-like, her brother is a petty criminal, Dreyfuss in unusually tough role.
Simon came from parents with a stormy marriage. The father would leave home for extended periods and the mother took in boarders, meaning the boys (Neil had an older brother Danny) were sometimes palmed off on relatives - thus the autobiographical element to the story (play first, then film).
It's nicely designed by David Chapman and photographed by Johnny Jensen, with a terrific Elmer Bernstein score.
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