Sidewalks of New York (2001)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Edward Burns

Writer (WGA):

Edward Burns (written by)

Release Date:

30 November 2001 (Lithuania)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

In a city of 8 million people, what are the odds the perfect two will meet?

Plot:

The interlocking lives and loves of six New Yorkers.

Plot Keywords:

Video Store | Divorce | Waitress | Doorman | Dentist

Cast

Penny Balfour	...	Young Hooker
Edward Burns	...	Tommy
Michael Leydon Campbell	...	Gio / Harry
Nadia Dajani	...	Hilary
Rosario Dawson	...	Maria
Kathleen Doyle	...	Katy
Dennis Farina	...	Carpo
Heather Graham	...	Annie
Leah Gray	...	Dental Hygienist
Timothy Jerome	...	Dr. Lance (as Tim Jerome)
David Krumholtz	...	Ben
Libby Langdon	...	Make-up Girl
Alicia Meer	...	Elevator Girl
Brittany Murphy	...	Ashley
Ted Neustadt	...	Doctor

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content and language.

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Finland:K-11 | Iceland:12 | Argentina:16 | France:U | Germany:12 | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:R | Portugal:M/12 (video premiere)

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Artists Production Group (APG)

Trivia:

The painting of the house in Tommy's (Ed Burns) home office is that of the house Ed Burns grew up in on Long Island, as featured in The Brothers McMullen (1995).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Ben is sitting in the bathroom strumming his guitar, the chords change but the fingers of his left hand clearly do not.

Quotes:

Carpo: I'm going to tell you something, I'm speaking from experience here. I am about the biggest dog there is. But it is not a good idea to fool around with married women. It's bad karma, kid.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Anatomy of a Scene: Sidewalks of New York" (2001)

Soundtrack:

Concerto in D Major

Overdone to evoke the harsh concept of disconnectedness.

The situations are conspicuously overdone to drive the underlying story, but the side walk interviews do succeed in neutralizing this potentially myopic trap. Writer/Director Burns illustrates the concept of friendship separated form love which is separated from sex.

He shows how everything is incomplete and even hollow if those three critical elements of a relationship are way out of balance. A sufficient background is developed for the characters to understand their motivations and what led their lives to this point, but there is a reliance on the audience's own knowledge to complete the concept which may make this movie suit the 25 and over crowd.

The web of deceit is spun into a fable where the guilty learn their lessons as they cause the innocent fall from grace. The movie is nearly two hours long, and does feel a little slow, but Burns put in what needs to be there to make his view of neo-post-love sexual relations work.

Stanley Tucci had the busiest role as the two timing dentist with his affair on the side. Even his affair is knocked aside when it is inconvenient. Heather Graham finally gets to display her ability to act. She effectively takes her character through the biggest transformation in the story which could be an allegory for modern society's excuse for love. This will feel slow, but the purpose of that will become more apparent in the end.