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Sidewalks of New York
review by Cynthia Fuchs, 23 November
2001
The world is run by fear, my friend
How did you lose your virginity?" This is the first
question asked of faux-interviewees in Edward Burns'
faux-documentary-style romantic paean to the city he loves,
Sidewalks of New York. It's an arresting way to start a movie,
even if the answers are familiar -- in high school, in college, in a
car, in a whorehouse with a girl named Cherry Pie. Actually, what's
most arresting is the city that surrounds them, the streets so busy
with traffic and preoccupied passersby, the characters' concerns
seem so naïve and sweet, so pre-11 September. In fact, Burns's film
was scheduled to open in mid-September, pushed back to show
"appropriate" respect and released to celebrate the city as it was.
This context
makes Sidewalks instantly nostalgic; its smallness, its
limitations and annoyances, make a peculiar sense. The characters,
naïve and nattering, exist in a perversely and suddenly pristine
moment, fixated on their efforts to find love, sex or
self-reaffirming reflections of themselves. Sidewalks is what
it sounds like: a Woody Allen movie. It's a better one than Woody
Allen himself has made in a while, borrowing heavily from
Husbands and Wives in attitude and technique, but it's still a
Woody Allen movie.
As it begins,
Tommy (Burns), a producer at (the fictional) Entertainment This
Week, is kicked out of his girlfriend's apartment (he wants
kids, she doesn't, which lays out his earnestness if not exactly his
sensitivity, right off). Lucky for him, Tommy is invited to stay
with his mentor in work and romance, Carpo (Dennis Farina), who
offers the following advice: "Nothing heals a broken heart faster
than a fresh piece of ass." And voila: at the local video store
(actually, Mrs. Hudson's), Tommy and sixth-grade teacher Maria
(Rosario Dawson) meet cute, as both are trying to rent Breakfast
at Tiffany's. In other words, a first date is inevitable, and
for this event, Carpo suggests that Tommy put cologne on his
testicles, counsel that the apparently intelligent Tommy
inexplicably takes without question. Maria is suitably alarmed at
this and besides that, a little skittish, being recently divorced
from doorman/musician Benjamin (David Krumholtz). He's currently
pursuing Ashley (Brittany Murphy), an NYU student/waitress
originally from Iowa, who is currently bedding dentist Griffin
(Stanley Tucci), who is married to real estate agent Annie (Heather
Graham), who is showing apartments to and flirting with Tommy.
This roundelay
(with appropriate homages to Max Ophuls' La Ronde) involves
repeated efforts to define love, commitment, deceit, levels of
authentic New Yorkness ("bridge and tunnel" versus Upper East Side),
obsession, and oh, I don't know, availability (Griffin tells Ashley
he is "technically" available, as he has an "understanding"; she
cleverly retorts, is this understanding "between you and your wife
or you and your dick?"). When asked by the anonymous interviewer to
define the word "cheat," most everyone has a sad story (except
Griffin, for whom cheating is a masculine right). Where Tommy
laments the loss of love that precedes cheating, and Ben sees it as
a function of age (if you're too young, you can't help yourself),
Annie has a more philosophical take on it: "People cheat because
they're afraid. The world is run by fear, my friend."
While such
trivial pronouncements and the predictable situations that generate
them tend to be tedious and self-important, the film clicks along
with Frank Prinzi's dynamic handheld camerawork, documentary editor
David Greenwald's stylish jumpcuts, and the terrific de-lyricized
Cake soundtrack. Also to its credit, most all the movie's characters
have unsympathetic moments (and Griffin, obviously, has many), and
these are the film's most compelling. Still, and even with its
unanticipated, insta-documentary relevance, Sidewalks of New York
offers only slight insights to go with its smart surface.
Click here to read Cynthia Fuchs' interview.
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Written and
Directed by:
Edward Burns
Starring:
Edward Burns
Rosario Dawson
Dennis Farina
Heather Graham
David Krumholtz
Brittany Murphyi
Stanley Tucci
Michael Leydon Campbell
Rated:
R - Restricted
Under 17
requires
accompanying parent
or adult guardian.
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