Based on Bernard Malamud`s 1957 novel The Assistant is a story of crime and redemption... The time is the Great Depression. Frank Alpine - Gil Bellows - has no work, sleeps in the company of rats. He`s reluctantly talked into a petty robbery by a stranger. The victim is Morris Bober - Armin Mueller-Stahel - who runs a small delicatessen with his wife Ida - Joan Plowrright, helped by their daughter Helen - Kate Greenhouse. After the robbery Frank is in an agony of remorse. He returns to the store, wanting to help out. He gradually insinuates himself into the lives of the Bober`s and begins falling in love with Helen. But he`s a gentile and she`s a Jew...The humanist theme of The Assistant and the melodrama that develops within it is given good support by the performances of the four main actors... Armin Mueller- Stahel as always gives a knockout performance... Daniel Petrie`s direction is competent without being particularly inspired, the music is occasionally intrusive and cliched... but at the same time there is enough in The Assistant to provide a rewarding cinema experience...David`s Comments:A 1957 Bernard Malmaud novel turned into a very old fashioned film. It takes too long to get to the most interesting part of the film - the rape and its aftermath. Too much of the rest of the film is predictable, and rather flatly handled.
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