Avalon

Elijah's small part in Internal Affairs the 1990 drama/thriller, is minimal and his only lines occur towards the beginning of the movie, after that we don't see his character again. His first real substantial acting role occurred when he was cast as the young Michael Kaye in Barry Levinson's ambitious film, Avalon in 1990. Essentially, the movie is about the Polish/Jewish immigrant Krichinsky family who have come to America to make a life for themselves.
The film begins with a family celebration during Thanksgiving where Sam Krichinsky (Armin Mueller-Stahl) is telling his grandchildren a story about his first impressions of America when he first immigrated: "I came to America in 1914 - by way of Philadelphia. That's where I got off the boat. And then I came to Baltimore. It was the most beautiful place you ever seen in your life. There were lights everywhere! What lights they had! It was a celebration of lights". Sam tells of how the Krichinsky family in America grew as he and his brothers raised money to send for more relatives.

Michael Kaye (Elijah) is a young, sensitive boy who genuinely looks up to his grandfather (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and loves to hear his stories about his experiences. Due to the semi-autobiographical nature of the film, it seems as if Michael represents Levinson as a child. Not long after the family's Thanksgiving celebrations, Michael tags along to work with his dad, Jules Kaye (Aidan Quinn) who is a salesman, and during the evening, as Michael is waiting in the car for his dad to finish a sale, he witnesses his dad getting mugged and stabbed. He is deeply disturbed by this as is the rest of the family. All is well though, and Jules returns home from the hospital and during the Christmas celebrations and is given a brand new television set. A very humurous scene in the movie occurs when the family is huddled in front of the TV set watching the endless test pattern. In fact this happens at least twice where they simply sit and gape at the still pattern as it emits its constant hum, then, later Michael (Elijah) says that the hum sounds different and he thinks something is bound to happen soon.

Levinson does not leave anything to anyone's imagination and every scene seems to be pushing its point accross somewhat forcefully, for instance a scene involving Michael and some bees. Michael and his cousin are outside the house where they are playing ball together and bouncing the ball off of the front porch steps, then cut to a view behind the steps to where an angry hive of bees are becoming disturbed, then it cuts back to the boys as they unknowingly continue to bounce the ball. The scene cuts almost endlessly back and forth from the talking woman inside at the table, back to the boys playing ball, to the bees behind the steps, back to the boys, then the woman, then the bees...It is a scene that comes across as contrived and forces a certain reaction from the audience while being overly obvious about the outcome, which is, ultimately, that Michael gets stung by a lot of bees.
Jules (Michael's father) and his cousin Izzy end up opening up a store exclusively selling television sets, then comes an impulsive move to the suburbs as Sam and Eva (Michael's grandparents) reluctantly come along and live with Jules, Ann, and Michael.
Family is always the main theme at the core of the movie, and we can see this as the film shows how the large family never misses a chance to gather for holidays, family circle time, and any other important family events. The closeness of the family in the beginning really makes the break-up and discord that occurs towards the end really tragic. Although, as we can see, there are always problems within the family core, it is sad to see all of the effort Sam had put into bringing the family closer together, completely evaporate. Gabriel, Sam's older brother is always late to the family Thanksgving dinner, and when he arrives to find out that they had gone and cut the turkey without him, he leaves in an angry and wounded state at the lack of respect shown. The discord between the brothers starts here and continues to grow out of proportion as there is a blow up at a family circle meeting and Sam declares that he will not preside over the meetings any more, and then leaves.

The relationship that Sam and Michael have is unique and we can see that they really enjoy being around each other and there are several key scenes that occur with the two interacting. One of the scenes that they have together is where Sam is wallpapering the new baby's room and Sam tells Michael that he should never have to be a wallpaper hanger like he had been upon arrival to the United States. During this scene Elijah enquires as to why Sam is moving out and we can see that Michael doesn't want him to leave. As it gets closer to the time where Jules and Ann's new baby is to be born, Sam and Eva see that it is time to leave the house and find their own place to live in order for Jules and Ann to have their own space to raise their family. Michael does not understand why his grandfather wants to leave, and there is a touching scene where Sam and Eve are leaving and Michael runs after them to hug them goodbye. Earlier on in the movie it shows Michael at school one day and he is struggling to understand the lesson on the difference between the words "may" and "can". After the teacher had explained the differences to the class, she is asked by Michael if he "can" go to the bathroom. The teacher sees this as a blatant refusal to accept the lesson, and she tells Michael that he will only be allowed to go to the bathroom if he can ask properly and tell her the difference between "may" and "can". Michael is obviously confused and asks again if "can" go to the bathroom. He is refused his request and sent out into the hall for punishment until he can tell her the difference between the words. Repeatedly, the teacher comes out in the hall to quiz him more, but Michael does not understand her point. The principal then calls Michael's house, Sam picks up and is told that Michael is having behavioral problems. Upon arriving at the school and talking with the principal, Sam is flabergasted that the teacher had made such a big deal over such a confusing concept. As Sam is walking Michael home from school, he talks with Michael about how difficult a language that English is and that it has many subtleties. In this scene Sam is relating to Michael about his own confusion with certain distinctions in the English language. In another scene, Sam takes some of the grandkids to the park to sleep outside, and as they lay on the blanket, Michael asks Sam to tell them the story about the night club that he had owned at one time.
Michael also seems to be a bit of a pyromaniac and the trouble starts when he and his cousin are in the basement looking at a completed model airplane that they decide to burn it for entertainment. They light the plane on fire on the concrete basement floor and then watch it burn up. Michael's grandma upon entering the basement, comes to the rescue and puts the flames out and tells the boys not to light things on fire in the house. The moment his grandma warns him that he could burn the house down is definately foreshadowing and one can see this almost immediately while viewing the movie. Later, after Jules and Izzy open the huge department store and they are having a huge 4th of July sale, they take Michael and his cousin to spend the day with them at the store. The boys are playing in the basement of the store and they decide to burn the model plane they have with them. This time, they have firecrackers attatched to the wings of the plane and the plane begins to explode in pops, shooting sparks out across the room surrounded with boxed merchandise covered in straw. The boys put out the spreading flames quickly and then decide to leave the basement. As the two cousins head up the stairs, one of the two says "All we need is to burn down Dad's store the day of the big sale". Later that night as the family celebrates the huge success of the sale, they receive a phonecall that the department store is burning down. Michael and his cousin think it is because they didn't put out all of the flames. Michael runs out and goes to his grandfather's house and tells him what happened with the plane. Sam tells Michael that he must tell his dad the truth so Jules is called over. Michael bravely tells Jules about what had happened and then we find out from Jules that the fire had started on the 4th floor and not the basement, so Michael is absolved of blame.
Avalon is a film that has a lot of heart and sentimentality throughout it and is not lacking in quality, but it somehow left me feeling quite unsatisfied. During the movie, one almost feels as if it is trying to hard to make certain points. It ends up being a longer movie than it should be and it seems to lack a general strong plot. It just follows the many meandering stories of the many members of the family and does not seem to have a point. Although Avalon was made with a lot of care and love, it still falls short of being perfect or great and has some obvious flaws, yet it still conveys a very intimate story that is obviously close to Levinson's heart and it does have some good points.
Elijah's performance as Michael is very convincing and impressive seeing as this is his first real role. He holds his own in every scene he appears in and seems very at ease with the concept of acting. He seems really genuine as Michael and he brings a good deal of charm to the character. His facial expressions and enthusiam in this film show the kind of potential he had to offer right from the beginning. Even next to a cast of experienced and respected actors such as Aidan Quinn, Joan Plowright, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and Elizabeth Perkins, Elijah still holds his own and convincingly conveys his character in a very professional way. His role in Avalon shows what kind of talent and potential Elijah had and I think it helped him get noticed and cast in some great roles in the future.