Director Barry Levinson has set most of his semi-autobiographical films (including the earlier Diner and Tin Men) in Baltimore, the city where he grew up. This, his most epic story to date, traces an immigrant family's history over more than 50 years and charts the disintegration of the family unit alongside the growth of television. It's a long, meandering film in which every human emotion is milked to great effect. Some sections do work better than others, but as a whole, it is an impressive achievement. The best scenes are undoubtedly the huge, raucous and often shrill family gatherings - the exchanges between the different generations of the Krichinsky family ringing all too true. Most of the actors were little known but they live and breathe Levinson's colourful characters, with the more familiar figure of Joan Plowright a standout as the intrusive mother hen figure.

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