The New York premiere may have kicked off at 6 p.m., but the cast and crew of Sex and the City: The Movie partied 'til three in the morning, with two after parties! After Sex's big New York homecoming at the Radio City Music Hall and an after party at the Museum of Modern Art, the film's inner circle – including Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Jason Lewis and director Michael Patrick King – celebrated the night away at an exclusive after-after party at The Carlyle hotel. Around midnight, with husband Matthew Broderick, Parker escaped the Moma, arriving at the hotel's legendary Bemelmans Bar,...
- 5/28/2008
- by Janet Murphy
- PEOPLE.com
Puppy love in all its wondrous and awkward glory is given the romantic-comedy treatment in "Little Manhattan", an Upper West Side story cooked up by the husband-and-wife team of Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett.
While the juvenile performances are bright and engaging, and there's no shortage of genuinely humorous observations about love and life in the Big Apple, there's an inescapable small-screen dynamic to the scope and rhythm of the production.
That effect is further amplified by having those young observations filtered through an adult sensibility but delivered in nonstop narration by its 11-year-old protagonist.
And while it's a technique that worked memorably on television's "The Wonder Years", where Levin was a co-producer, it begins to wear a little thin in a feature format.
Opening this weekend in limited New York engagements, the picture also poses a major marketing challenge for Fox because the stars are a bit on the young side for the usual romantic-comedy female demo, while most kids aren't going to respond to all that icky, lovey-dovey stuff.
Meet Gabe Burton (Josh Hutcherson), an average fifth-grader who's content to hang around with his buddies, play hoops and ride his scooter around his safely removed Upper West Side neighborhood.
Back at home, things are a little more complicated. Even though his parents (Bradley Whitford and Cynthia Nixon) have been separated for more than a year, they still share the same apartment -- welcome to the reality of New York real estate -- as well as the same refrigerator, though the food has been divvied up and identified accordingly.
But Gabe's life really gets thrown for a loop when he is reacquainted with his old nursery school friend, Rosemary (newcomer Charlie Ray), in his karate class, and it's smitten torment all the way.
Striking a balance that seems to fall exactly halfway between "The Wonder Years" and Woody Allen, officially credited screenwriter Flackett and officially credited director Levin keep things on the pleasantly amusing side and coax some winningly winsome performances out of their young leads.
But ultimately, aside from a prevailing vibe that's more sitcom than rom com, there's something a bit precious and restrictively insular about "Little Manhattan"'s Manhattan, a place that has been given the same heavily romanticized and gently sanitized look as those early Allen pictures (with the help of Oscar-nominated "Hannah and Her Sisters" production designer Stuart Wurtzel).
Although the filmmakers have availed themselves of real Gotham locations, their take on modern-day New York -- one in which an 11-year-old's idea of an awesome time is going on a date to hear cabaret singer Loston Harris croon "Teach Me Tonight" -- ends up having all the immediacy and vibrant authenticity of studio backlot tour.
Little Manhattan
20th Century Fox
Regency Enterprises presents a Pariah/New Regency production
Credits:
Director: Mark Levin
Screenwriter: Jennifer Flackett
Producers: Gavin Polone, Arnon Milchan
Executive producers: Ezra Swerdlow, Vivian Cannon
Director of photography: Tim Orr
Production designer: Stuart Wurtzel
Editor: Alan Edward Bell
Costume designer: Kasia Walicka Maimone
Music: Chad Fischer
Cast:
Gabe: Josh Hutcherson
Adam: Bradley Whitford
Leslie: Cynthia Nixon
Rosemary: Charlie Ray
Ralph: Willie Garson
Birdie: Tonye Patano
MPAA rating PG
Running time -- 86 minutes...
While the juvenile performances are bright and engaging, and there's no shortage of genuinely humorous observations about love and life in the Big Apple, there's an inescapable small-screen dynamic to the scope and rhythm of the production.
That effect is further amplified by having those young observations filtered through an adult sensibility but delivered in nonstop narration by its 11-year-old protagonist.
And while it's a technique that worked memorably on television's "The Wonder Years", where Levin was a co-producer, it begins to wear a little thin in a feature format.
Opening this weekend in limited New York engagements, the picture also poses a major marketing challenge for Fox because the stars are a bit on the young side for the usual romantic-comedy female demo, while most kids aren't going to respond to all that icky, lovey-dovey stuff.
Meet Gabe Burton (Josh Hutcherson), an average fifth-grader who's content to hang around with his buddies, play hoops and ride his scooter around his safely removed Upper West Side neighborhood.
Back at home, things are a little more complicated. Even though his parents (Bradley Whitford and Cynthia Nixon) have been separated for more than a year, they still share the same apartment -- welcome to the reality of New York real estate -- as well as the same refrigerator, though the food has been divvied up and identified accordingly.
But Gabe's life really gets thrown for a loop when he is reacquainted with his old nursery school friend, Rosemary (newcomer Charlie Ray), in his karate class, and it's smitten torment all the way.
Striking a balance that seems to fall exactly halfway between "The Wonder Years" and Woody Allen, officially credited screenwriter Flackett and officially credited director Levin keep things on the pleasantly amusing side and coax some winningly winsome performances out of their young leads.
But ultimately, aside from a prevailing vibe that's more sitcom than rom com, there's something a bit precious and restrictively insular about "Little Manhattan"'s Manhattan, a place that has been given the same heavily romanticized and gently sanitized look as those early Allen pictures (with the help of Oscar-nominated "Hannah and Her Sisters" production designer Stuart Wurtzel).
Although the filmmakers have availed themselves of real Gotham locations, their take on modern-day New York -- one in which an 11-year-old's idea of an awesome time is going on a date to hear cabaret singer Loston Harris croon "Teach Me Tonight" -- ends up having all the immediacy and vibrant authenticity of studio backlot tour.
Little Manhattan
20th Century Fox
Regency Enterprises presents a Pariah/New Regency production
Credits:
Director: Mark Levin
Screenwriter: Jennifer Flackett
Producers: Gavin Polone, Arnon Milchan
Executive producers: Ezra Swerdlow, Vivian Cannon
Director of photography: Tim Orr
Production designer: Stuart Wurtzel
Editor: Alan Edward Bell
Costume designer: Kasia Walicka Maimone
Music: Chad Fischer
Cast:
Gabe: Josh Hutcherson
Adam: Bradley Whitford
Leslie: Cynthia Nixon
Rosemary: Charlie Ray
Ralph: Willie Garson
Birdie: Tonye Patano
MPAA rating PG
Running time -- 86 minutes...
- 10/11/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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