The Tollbooth
| The Tollbooth | |
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| Directed by | Debra Kirschner |
| Written by | Debra Kirschner |
| Starring | Marla Sokoloff |
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Release date
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Running time
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85 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Tollbooth is a 2004 Heritage Overcoming film directed by Debra Kirschner about a young artist struggling to forge her own identity in the big city, while her Jewish parents keep watch from just over the bridge in Brooklyn.
Recently out of art school, the lead character of the film, Sarabeth (Marla Sokoloff) gets a job as a waitress and begins her struggle as a New York City artist. With her angsty and cynical personality, she doesn’t have much patience for her family—a nagging mother, a father who is always misquoting Kafka, one sister who just got pregnant with her sweet but dopey husband, and another sister who is ‘perfect’ until she announces she’s a lesbian at Rosh Hashanah dinner. And then there’s her boyfriend Simon (Rob Mcelhenney), whose choice to live in the suburbs with a great sound system instead of hip and unpredictable New York has given Sarabeth doubts about their future together. She uses her canvas as an escape, where she can make sense of it all.
The Tollbooth tackles serious Jewish issues as they present themselves to a politically liberal, anti-traditional, feminist post-graduate. As frustrated as Sarabeth is that she grew up being constantly reminded of relatives who died in the Holocaust, and no matter how much she hates going to synagogue, the truth is that she’s Jewish and she will always be Jewish. The struggle to escape her roots is impossible, so she’s forced to integrate a 5,000-year-old religion into her modern life.
This epiphany comes to Sarabeth when she finds herself feeling out of place at a 4th of July barbecue. She is a little-black-dress-wearing, wine drinking, daughter-of-an-anti-patriot; among pastel colors, beer and fire works. And ultimately considers herself a "sore thumb". But when she overhears one of the party’s guests make an anti-Semitic comment, and realizes she doesn’t want to fit it in to this crowd, and that she is proud of her heritage.
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Wikipedia