Brief Encounter on the Manhattan commuter train -- but not all that brief after all, and without anything like Noel Coward's verbal facility. Michael Christofer's underwritten script maneuvers the characters fairly cleverly into place, but then gives them nothing much to do or say once there. A glaring oversight, this, when the relationship (unusually enough) remains always on a Platonic plane. Thus the stars are called on to fill in with their individual shtick. And Meryl Streep, who is here just a flutter and a twitter from Sandy Dennis, fills in with more of it than Robert De Niro; indeed she piles up quite a mound of it. De Niro gives his fans perhaps one thing to clutch at: an out-loud rehearsal of his "Hi, hello" commuter come-on, which carries a faint echo of his "You talkin' to me?" routine from Taxi Driver. With Dianne Wiest and Harvey Keitel; directed by Ulu Grosbard. (1984) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.