Lost in Yonkers

In 1942, after their mother’s death, 15-year-old Jay Kurnitz, Brad Stoll, and his 13-year-old brother Arty move from the Bronx to Yonkers to live with their stern Grandma Kurnitz, Irene Worth, and her daughter Aunt Bella, [Mercedes Ruehl](/actor/mercedes-ruehl, who, despite being in her mid-30s, has the mind and emotions of a child. Their father Eddie Kurnitz, Jack Laufer, takes a traveling sales job to pay off his late wife’s medical debt, hoping this arrangement might bring some relief to the fractured family.

Grandma’s hard-edged parenting has left the siblings wary and tense, but Bella remains the one person capable of standing up to her, even threatening to move out to the home for people with mental conditions if the boys can’t stay. Meanwhile, Jay and Arty learn that Grandma has tucked away a hidden $15,000 somewhere in the house and the attached candy store, and they hatch a careful plan to find it so their father can return home. Their sister Gert, Susan Merson, lives with fear of Grandma and has developed a nervous speech impediment as a result of the family’s volatile dynamics, a detail that underscores the environment that shaped them all.

Uncle Louie, Richard Dreyfuss, returns to his mother’s house to hide from Hollywood Harry, Robert Miranda, who is stalking him hoping to seize the black bag Louie possesses. Louie’s rough, self-reliant past becomes a counterpoint to Grandma’s iron will, and he pushes the boys toward a bold kind of courage—“moxie”—while also revealing the deep-seated trauma that warped Grandma: she witnessed police kill her father at age 12 and was left permanently disabled by the ensuing riot.

Bella’s romance with Johnny, David Strathairn, the head usher at the local movie house, drives a lot of the family’s tension. The couple dreams of marriage and opening a restaurant, a goal that requires $5,000. Bella hopes Grandma will fund this plan, but the path to independence is rocky, complicated by the money Louie has acquired and by Johnny’s fear of commitment. The family’s strained dinner hour becomes a turning point, and Bella ultimately agrees to move back in with Grandma on the condition that she be allowed to chart a more independent life.

When Eddie returns from his travels to reclaim his sons, the boys leave Grandma a heartfelt farewell card, marking a bittersweet end to one chapter. In the film’s final scenes, a quiet implication of Grandma’s death lingers, and Bella departs Yonkers for good, heading to Florida where she has secured a restaurant job and plans to send Eddie and the boys a postcard documenting her new start.

Last Updated: October 05, 2025 at 12:22