The Jewish immigrant experience at the end of the 19th century in New York City is one of the most storied (and saddest) tales in American lore. Applauded for its depiction of 1890s Yiddish culture, Joan Micklin Silver's Hester Street is a stripped-down period piece that relies on strong acting to explore its emotional subject matter. When a Jewish girl (Carol Kane) arrives on the Lower East Side to find that her already-emigrated husband has abandoned his old values and taken up with another woman, you might expect a foray into high sentimentality — but Kane's quiet and, at times, humorous performance shows that a philandering husband is nothing to cry over.