Goodbye, New York (1985)

Goodbye, New York (1985)

“I thought I’d change my life.”

Synopsis:
When a woman (Julie Hagerty) finds her husband (Christopher Goutman) cheating on her, she leaves New York and heads to Paris, only to find herself in Israel without luggage or money when she sleeps through her landing. Once there, she befriends her new roommate (Aviva Ger) on a kibbutz as well as a lonely soldier (Amos Kollek) hoping for romance.

Genres:

  • Middle East
  • Strong Females

Review:
There’s little to recommend about this well-meaning but dull, contrived, and poorly acted Israeli flick about a suddenly-single woman determined to have the adventure of her life abroad. As Kevin Thomas wrote in his review of the film for the L.A. Times: “Writer-producer-director (and co-star) Amos Kollek… fails to develop Hagerty’s predicament with either wit or credibility, only a plentitude of tedious complications. Hagerty, though game, comes off as a tiresome dimwit.” The primary novelty of the film is its Israeli setting, though there have since been many other worthier titles to check out.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • An interesting glimpse of an Israeli kibbutz in the 1980s

Must See?
No; feel free to skip this one. Listed as a Sleeper and Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary’s book.

Links:

One thought on “Goodbye, New York (1985)

  1. First viewing. Not must-see, though it’s certainly not as bad as the assessment suggests. It’s almost-consistently mildly amusing but it does begin to lose whatever steam it has in the last 30 minutes.

    Hagerty has a real feel for eccentric comedy; that first, sort-of non-sequitur, run-on monologue she has in the opening scene is handled quite well (that’s not the kind of thing that’s easy to memorize / deliver) but, from there on, the material won’t particularly be on her side. Though I don’t think she comes off as a “dimwit” at all, she *does* come off as spoiled – so it’s refreshing when her character is shown-up for what she is and, as a result, helps her kibbutz manager from being ripped-off financially. Unfortunately, from there on, the character stagnates somewhat (esp. when she jumps at the chance to take up with a rich playboy).

    Favorite line: In a kosher restaurant, Kollek calls out in a loud voice, “This is the best pork I’ve had in months!” [waiter drops dishes]

    I certainly need to see more Israeli films, though I’ve seen some of the larger-profile ones. I looked at the link provided above. ‘Late Marriage’ is, indeed, a fine film – but I also watched ‘The Band’s Visit’ and I think even ‘Goodbye New York’ is more entertaining than that painfully slow flick. I’m sort of surprised to not see any of Eytan Fox’s films mentioned there, esp. ‘Yossi and Jagger’.

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