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"Sidewalks
of New York" is a romantic comedy made up to look like a
documentary by writer, actor, and director Ed Burns. He takes
his cameras along the streets of New York, stopping to talk to
his actors who all do a good enough job of camouflaging
themselves into the New York surroundings. He then goes further
by taking us into their private lives to examine the concepts of
sex, love, the meaning of marriage, and adultery.
Burns plays one of the characters in the film named Tommy, a TV
entertainment reporter whose girlfriend has just kicked him out
of her apartment because he wants kids and she doesn't. He then
meets Maria (Rosario Dawson), a schoolteacher who married young
and divorced early.
Her ex-husband, named Ben (David Krumholtz), is a hotel doorman
who has really only had sex once and that was with Maria. Even
though Maria shows little sign of letting him back into her
life, he is still convinced that he can make it work so he
continually hangs around her apartment. This only makes things
worse.
He feels pathetic and lonely until the day he meets a waitress
named Ashley (Brittany Murphy), an NYU student who is having an
affair with a dentist named Griffin (Stanley Tucci). Griffin
doesn't want to leave his wife, but he also can't have sex with
only one woman and so he treats Ashley like his personal sex
toy.
But Ashley soon becomes fed up with the go-nowhere relationship
and so breaks it off and falls for the sweet natured and
vulnerable Ben.
Griffin's wife Annie (Heather Graham) is almost certain that he
is having an affair, but can't get past his very convincing
stories. His "supposed" late nights at the office are
hurting her emotionally though, and so when she meets Tommy, she
responds to his flirting. Tommy meanwhile is going through rocky
times with Maria.
Woody Allen has trampled over this material several times
before, but while Burns can never bring anything new to the
table, he does manage to add humor and drama to the
relationships he presents, and that is due largely to a very
nice cast.
Three actors who manage to steal the film almost instantly are
Stanley Tucci, Dennis Farina, and especially David Krumholtz.
Krumholtz has been in a variety of films, including "Life
With Mikey" and "Slums of Beverly Hills", but
this is the first role that allows him to be both funny and
surprisingly charming. Him and Murphy work very well together.
Dennis Farina is also very funny as Tommy's swinging playboy of
a roommate and Tucci is perfect as a jerk with an inferiority
complex about his penis. Heather Graham also shows much
more talent than she has in the past, playing a smart, but also
love starved woman who isn't happy with the way her life has
turned out.
The cast makes up a sweet and engaging group of people who are
supported nicely by the funny bit of dialogue Burns puts into
his script. "Sidewalks of New York" won't go down as
the most enchanting romantic comedy of the year, but you could
definitely call this movie an ode to Woody Allen, and with the
string of comic flops that have hit the theaters recently, that
isn't half bad.
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