Worst casting ever

Exactly the point that during filmmaking, a director (and other crew, and really the actors as well) ought to catch something like that and say "Hey, when this hits the audience, they're gonna wonder about that accent, so maybe just one line here and one line over in this scene, and we can cover it." It was a miss.

Also a miss: Garfunkel. OP (and others) covered it. Not that he has to be some crazy-sexy goodbody male-model type, or even have the Keitel going. But Garfunkel isn't even convincing as a blandish schlemiel, really. As somebody pointed out earlier, he seems out of his element, not part of any film universe, unreal even when the character demands nothing in particular. (And that's coming from somebody who likes him as a singer and a person.)

Agreed re Theresa Russell, for sure. She did what she could, anyway.

Just a side note:

At Sundance in 1991, I happened to be in the crowd waiting outside the Egyptian for Ms. Russell and the other panelists (a group that was supposed to include Ken Russell as well) to arrive before they'd let us in for seating for the premiere. I have never said this about any celebrity before, simply because it hasn't been true of the rare actors, directors, etc. that I've run across, but as Ms. Russell walked in I was about 12 feet or so away, and she was kind of scanning the crowd, and for two or three full seconds she locked eyes (with me, I mean) and did that smile she does. Probably didn't mean a thing, of course, but just for a second I felt like a side of bacon, because...you know, it's that look. Probably looks that way at her dog or the paint on the wall, too. But anyway. (It should be said that a couple of people in front of me turned around with that how-does-she-know-your-sorry-a$s look. I just tried to look like a satellite part of the entourage or something.)

So anyhow, I was somewhat predisposed to root for the film, as you kind of are anyway at these festivals; you tend to look for the good rather than getting all obsessed with imperfections. You're rooting for people and films to do well if they're any good at all.

Then we went in...and it was a disaster. One "funny" line after another landed like a body hitting the pavement, not a laugh in the place. I sat behind Cheech Marin, who turned to whoever he was sitting with at one point during the film and said "Man, this thing sucks, man." Ken Russell was conveniently indisposed and "delayed" with some other film, so he wasn't there for the panel as scheduled -- so poor Theresa, I think the screenwriter, and one or two other crew (an assistant director was one of them, I think, or maybe a second-unit director) were left to defend it. I actually felt terrible for all of them, especially for Ms. Russell, who definitely was going to call me after the whole debacle was over, or something. But seriously...it was bad. At some point you realize these are just people who put out an artistic product and hope it's good, and they look so much smaller and more vulnerable in real life, and it just kind of kills you when they swing for the fences and it bombs publicly. It can't be an easy life sometimes.

Regardless of that film, though, she does have that thing. (I think so much of it is in the voice, probably.) Anybody who saw the lurid but still interesting noir Black Widow (with Debra Winger) will understand what she can do for a film. ("Lurid" is not even remotely a criticism of that film, btw; it's sort of the tonal point of the film, actually.)