Yentl

What’s the Story?

YENTL (Barbra Streisand), a young Jewish woman in Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century, finds the traditional role for women in her culture unacceptable. Rather than living a submissive life as a homemaker, mother, and right hand to a husband, Yentl has a thirst for knowledge, for debate, for the study of Talmud, and for a life of the mind. When her father dies and she's left on her own, Yentl undertakes a brave but rash adventure. She disguises herself as a young man, travels alone to a distant city, and becomes a Yeshiva student, surrounded by rabbis and other intellectual young Jewish men. Complications ensue when Yentl finds herself falling in love with Avigdor (Mandy Patinkin), a brilliant young man. And, at the same time, Avigdor's fiancée Hadass (Amy Irving in an Oscar-nominated supporting role) finds herself drawn to Yentl, the "new boy" in town.

Is It Any Good?

Barbra Streisand's first film as a director, based on a story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, is an earnest, passionate effort. It has charming moments, some outstanding performances, pays beautiful attention to the detail of an Eastern European culture destroyed decades later by the Holocaust, and focuses on the always pertinent human desire to reach one's full potential.

Still, it isn't entirely successful. The resolution is not fully satisfying. At well over two hours, the film feels longer than the story merits. The music, designed to pay tribute to the Talmudic core of the story, tends to sound the same throughout. And is it really possible for an audience to accept a 40-something woman in the role of a young girl pretending to be a male Yeshiva student? Yet, it's a good try: enjoyable, perhaps just as brave as Yentl's divine experiment. If nothing else, Ms Streisand's voice is as extraordinary as ever.