Goodbye, New York

Plot

A ditzy New Yorker (Julie Hagerty) is devastated to learn that her husband has been unfaithful and impulsively decides to go to Paris to escape. When she consumes too many sedatives and oversleeps on the plane, missing her connection, she winds up in Tel Aviv, penniless and with no luggage or friends. After connecting with a cabdriver and part-time soldier (Amos Kollek), she finds herself stranded on a kibbutz near the Golan Heights where she must learn to cope with a series of misadventures and a very unfamiliar lifestyle.

Cast

Critical reception

Janet Maslin of The New York Times said the film possesses "an easygoing charm that, among Israeli films, is rare", presenting "witty impressions of Israeli life" and the clash of cultures. Candace Russell of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel likened Kollek's "absurdist worldview and droll understatement" to that of Woody Allen. While People thought the film "likable" and "genial", the reviewers noted its "uneven" script and direction, and a "sometimes contrived or just plain silly" plot. London's Time Out was more unequivocal, dismissing the "thin and clichéd material", its "predictable plot and dismal propaganda about the values of kibbutz culture."