Las aceras de Nueva York

Edward Burns is the kind of writer/director whose movies make you feel like you definitely could be one of the characters.

The feelings, insecurities, confidence, etc. of the characters you can see and make connections throughout the movie because of the way it was filmed, as if it were a documentary. It gave the audience a more unique perspective than most romantic films. There was much less of the "meant for each other" bull that you see in most romantic comedies. The characters were believable without tending towards cynical. The best facet of the movie is that it allows the audience to draw their own conclusions about love, sex, and these relationships without pushing too hard the director/writer's ideals.

A good film, refreshingly real, but without the big important moments (transformation, change, when characters learn something, etc.) it is ultimately forgettable. This movie doesn't teach an audience anything it doesn't already know, it simply confirms/denies our own viewpoints on relationships. Edward Burns seemingly takes a camera to real life people and shows the all encompassing exterior of their relationships with their lovers.

Similar, yet different, from his other films ("The Brother's McMullen" and `She's the One'), writer/director/producer/actor Edward Burns, with his typical minuscule budget, broaches on Woody Allen territory this time as he explores the ooohs, aaahs and owwwws (mostly the owwwws) of the marriage and dating game. The sights and sounds of New York is in the air as the movie zeroes in on six disparate Manhattanites, all of whom trying their damnest to find the no-real answer to happiness. No belly-laughs here, but a lot of knowing smiles.

This brash, perceptive, ultimately winning cyclical comedy first introduces us to good-looking, nice-guy Tommy (Ed Burns) who has just split up with his girlfriend and has been thrown out of her apartment. Tommy takes a sudden interest in evasive school teacher Maria (Rosario Dawson), whom he meets in a video store. Maria is divorced from small, tough-talking schlmiel Ben (David Krumholtz), a doorman and rock musician wannabe who cheated on her. Ben, still pining for Maria, finds a welcome distraction in edgy student/waitress Ashley (Brittany Murphy), who is having an affair with a much older and married dentist, Griffin (Stanley Tucci), whose suspecting wife Annie (Heather Graham), a real estate agent, has her eye on one of her customers, Tommy (back to Ed Burns again), who is (remember?) looking for a new pad since his girlfriend kicked him out. So much for the Kevin Bacon six degrees of separations and divorces angle.

To punch up the thought processes of our six relationship-minded specimens, Burns has given his film a documentary/reality TV feel. Each of our protagonists express their own individual and personal philosophies on the meaning of love and sex with a `man on the street' interviewer. These telling bits are conveniently spliced here and there into each of their ongoing stories, which are not only a biting commentary on the social scene, but often humorously contradict their actions and intent.

Burns, a native New Yorker, gives us a passionate, authentic, down-to-earth vision of his 'hood. No picaresque postcard images are to be found here. No tourist-like views of Rockefeller Center, the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, etc. And just as dressed-down and down-to-earth is his solid ensemble cast. The stories are evenly laid out with no one performance getting short shrift. Burns, Dawson, Tucci, Murphy, Klumholtz, and Graham all have meaty roles here and each of their stories are well-presented and attention-grabbing. The philandering Tucci character, the least sympathetic of the bunch, still manages to drum up some pity, if not sympathy, for his subsequent actions. What's more, the outside circle, the peripheral friends/instigators/colleagues, etc., add immeasurably to the humor and atmosphere of the piece, particularly Aida Turturro as a worldly wise teacher/friend of Dawson's, Dennis Farina as Burns' overt male chauvinist boss, Michael Leydon Campbell in dual roles as a rocker and male half of a bickering married couple, and Callie Thorne as the bickering wife.

No one treats New York better than Woody Allen. With "Sidewalks of New York" Edward Burns pays tribute to this fair city, and he pays homage to Mr. Allen -- 1992's "Husbands and Wives" in particular. Notice Burns' analytical approach to his characters, the hand-held camera work and jump-cut style of editing (which is actually smoother and less jolting than in Allen's above-mentioned film), the pneumatic jazz score, the reflexive, conversational-like bantering between his characters, the episodic storylines, and, most importantly, the obvious devotion he has for NY. It all but spells out W-O-O-D-Y. But, in this case, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. He's learned well from the master.

"Sidewalks of New York" feels like a retread of Ed Burns' earlier works. Once again we have a bunch of intermingling couples who do nothing but talk talk talk and obsess about relationships and their personal insecurities with them. When I first saw "The Brothers McMullen," I was surprised at how drawn into the story I was. But this story (as was also the case with "She's the One") seems way too similar to "McMullen." Things that were forgivable in that film are growing tired and distractive: Everyone meets in a classical "cute" way from the golden era of cinema. Everyone coincidentally runs into each other at the most convenient moment. Most of the characters are forgettable, and their relationships are not very believable. The film isn't very funny, and most of the running jokes fail. The film also doesn't live up to its title in that New York is shot in a most un-passionate, unflattering way--this better not appear on any list about the best films depicting New York. Burns puts alot of trust into improvisation, apparently telling his actors to just "roll with it." But he seems to feel that realism and improvisation can substitute for substance, and this is not true--many actors rant on and blurt out lines that don't feel genuine, almost forced by improvisation, when Burns should have just shouted "cut" and done a retake. The phony "interview" moments when the fictional characters speak to the camera, react to something offscreen, or ask if they should "start over" come off equally unnatural. Performances are bland for the most part, save Dennis Farina. Heather Graham comes off particularly bad, at one point I even thought I caught her fighting a smile, ready to bust out laughing during a "serious" scene.

Once again, we have a self-hating, self obsessed older male jerk who has an affair behind his insecure wife's back, we have a young idealistic kid who romances a girl with immediate promises of love and marriage, and again we have Ed Burns meeting someone by fighting over a material object--in "McMullen" it was an apartment, in "Sidewalks," it is a copy of "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

It's not that I hate this movie, its just that I see a lack of passion in it. It is almost as if Ed Burns doesn't trust his ability to move on, and that leaves us with total mediocrity. Grade: C-

Tommy (Edward Burns) is a television production man in Manhattan. His girlfriend has just given him the heave-ho from their joint apartment, stating she doesn't want kids and sees no future for them. Tommy is miffed because he gave up his own digs to move in with her, at her request. He temporarily bunks with his boss (Dennis Farina). The boss man is womanizer, boasting that he's slept with 500 women and left most of them "baying at the moon". Nevertheless, Tommy wants his own place so he gets in touch with NY realtor, Annie (Heather Graham). They begin at search for a suitable habitat, becoming friends in the process. Annie is married to a dentist named Griffin (Stanley Tucci). Annie wants children but, unknown to her, Griffin is having a fling with a 19 year old transplant from Iowa (Brittany Murphy) and he has been neglecting Annie in a big way. The young lady, Ashley, detests meeting Griffin in hotel rooms but has fallen for Griffin's lying promises. There is an attractive young doorman interested in her, too. Meanwhile, the doorman's beautiful ex-wife, Maria (Rosario Dawson) has met Tommy at the video store. Although she has dated no one since her stinging divorce, she begins a brief affair with Tommy. How will things shake down on the sidewalks of Manhattan? This is a great film and a tour de force for Burns, who wrote and directed it. Certainly, he is one gifted movie maker, as evidenced by his earlier films, including The Brothers McMullen and She's the One. In Sidewalks, he again probes relationships in the modern era, when sex can be around every corner and the more traditional marriage of an earlier age is absent. In doing so, Burns shows his brilliance for a balanced dissection, for he presents differing viewpoints in the course of the flick. All of the players here, from the scumbags Tucci and Farina, to the lovely Dawson to the very attractive Graham, Murphy, and Burns himself, are simply great. Add on a nice NYC setting, some terrific costumes and some great production values and you have a fine looking film as well. The story and direction are faultless, as Burns uses many interesting techniques to tell his tale, including testimonies and flashbacks. Watch out for a bit of rough language and sexual conversation, if that is important to you. However, there are truly no cracks in this Sidewalk, it is one wonderful film. Get your hands on a copy soon, very soon. And, here's hoping Burns will continue to make many more films.

I tuned in towards the beginning, watched a few minutes and said "hey this is cool, it's like real life". That high didn't last all that long, despite the neat idea of showing overlapping romances. Here's some of the problems - 1) nobody in the movie is all that sympathetic; 2) the deliberately amateurish directorial style, which includes short video cuts in the middle of nearly every extended conversation(!?), is unique the first 2 or 3 times but gets really obnoxious; 3) the preoccupation with talking sex to the exclusion of nearly anything else also gets old pretty fast. Dawson and Murphy are both attractive and try hard, but this whole thing started to seem false and/or pointless pretty quick. I wanted to at least watch the whole thing through since I was writing this, but sorry I just couldn't make it; maybe it got better after I tuned out. 5 out of 10. As a post-script, I watched The Brothers McMullen (not knowing it was an Ed Burns movie) and the same damn thing happened - it seemed great at first and then it wore out real real quick on me. Maybe Ed Burns should make 15 minute slice-of-life relationship movies.