Goodbye New York: Julie Hagerty gets lost in Israel

By Albert Ohayon

Goodbye New York (1985 Israel-USA, Amos Kollek)

Synopsis: A yuppie woman from New York discovers her husband cheating on her and decides to run away to Paris. On the flight she takes sleeping pills which causes her to oversleep and miss Paris. She wakes up in Tel Aviv with no luggage and no money. What will she do?

This light comedy is the work of Amos Kollek, who wrote, produced and directed this film as well as playing the leading man, David. Julie Hagerty (Airplane, Lost in America) plays Nancy, the yuppie woman who is as neurotic as can be. The film consists of her attempts to survive in Israel with very little money. A lot of this is quite silly but the whole thing goes down well enough.

David is on leave from the army and has one thing in mind: to have sex as quickly as possible. Nancy is just trying to persevere. The first time they meet is quite awkward but he agrees to help her by bringing her to his cousin’s kibbutz where she must work to earn her room and board. Of course, you can guess that this spoiled yuppie isn’t going to have an easy time on the kibbutz. Getting up at 3:30 in the morning and picking bananas, or cooking for 200 people is not anyone’s idea of fun. It is no different for Nancy.

The best part of the movie for me is the friendship that develops between Nancy and Ilana, her roommate at the kibbutz. They do not get along at first but grow to respect each other and become friends. Unfortunately, just as Nancy finally decides to really contribute to kibbutz life, she meets a suave, rich man who sweeps her away. This relationship does not last very long as Nancy discovers that people are not always who they seem to be.

Will Nancy ever make it to Paris? Will David finally have sex? Obviously, everything works out just as you thought it would.

There are several funny scenes in the movie including Nancy’s first attempts at picking bananas. David trying (unsuccessfully) to pick up two Swedish tourists is also quite funny. Unfortunately there is the contrived subplot where David meets an American porn actress who finds him attractive. The only problem is that she wants to visit her religious family before they go back to her hotel room. You can guess how this will turn out even before it plays out. Then there is the absurd sequence where the rapier thin Nancy decides to get into a banana eating contest with a very large man to celebrate the end of the banana harvest.

The movie makes the most of tourist sites throughout Israel including many in Jerusalem (Wailing Wall, Via Dolorosa, Holy Sepulchre) and in the Sea of Galilee. Kollek is actually pretty good as David (imagine a taller, less neurotic Woody Allen). Hagerty is clearly the star of this film and she pulls it off. There are a few moments where she overplays it (like when she quits her job at the start of the film) but she does a good job overall. Teddy Kollek, who was the mayor of Jerusalem at the time, does his son Amos a favour by appearing in a cameo (he is the man on the street who Nancy complains to).

This is a light film that never got the distribution it deserved. It has its faults (I would have loved to see the Ilana character developed more) but it is a pleasant, silly way to pass an hour and a half. I give it 3 bananas out of 5.

(at the time this article was published, the film was available to stream on YouTube)