After the Oscar-winning success of his `Kiss of the Spider Woman' this first American film from Brazilian director Hector Babenco was eagerly awaited. But despite two towering central performances from Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep (reunited after the previous year's 'Heartburn'), 'Ironweed' was a disappointment. Dubbed 'a film without an audience' by one critic, it's a low life story set among the street bums of Manhattan during the great Depression, and based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a vagrant trying to get back into the society he dropped out of years earlier. Nicholson has an uphill task to make you care about his character, while Streep has so little to do, it's a mystery why she accepted the role. Singer-turned-actor Tom Waits gives probably the film's most textured performance, which perfectly conveys the life he's sacrificed. But it's a slow and grimy journey that'll leave you wanting a bath.

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