Rating: PG
Genre:
Drama
Release Date: 10/18/2005
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD-EX/DTS-ESD/DDS2.0
Run Time: 116 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Adult Language
Distributor/Studio: Anchor Bay
Pop singer
Neil Diamond stars in this ill-begotten second remake of
Al Jolson's seminal 1927
musical The Jazz Singer. The moth-eaten story concerns a cantor's son who desires success as a
pop singer, despite the wishes of his imperious father. The film takes place in the present day with
Yussel Rabinowitz (
Neil Diamond) playing a young (though middle-aged looking) cantor performing at the synagogue of his father (
Laurence Olivier).
Yussel is married and has settled down to a life of religious devotion to the teaching of his fath. But on the side, he writes songs for a black singing group, and when a member of the quartet takes ill,
Yussel covers for him at one of their gigs by wearing blackface! The nightclub engagement is such a success that
Yussel abandons his family -- and his father's synagogue -- and leaves his New York home for Los Angeles, hoping to break into the music business. Almost immediately he is spotted by spunky agent Molly Bell (
Lucie Arnaz), who books him as an opening act for a touring comic.
Yussel hits it big, but his father resents
Yussel's forsaking their traditional Jewish ways. His father disowns him, rending his garments and bellowing, "I hef no son!"
~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
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