Movie Review by EDF
Starring: Edward Burns, Heather Graham, Brittany Murphy, Stanley Tucci, Rosario Dawson
Director: Edward Burns
SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK is a tale of how love in the big city can be spontaneous and challenging.
Written, directed, produced by and starring Edward Burns, this is Burns love letter to New York, a city where thousands of strangers pass each other by every day and not know the other person’s business.
The cast of characters are thus: Tommy (Edward Burns) wants to start a family with his long-term girlfriend, who doesn’t want children and throws Tommy out. Tommy stays with Carpo (Dennis Farina) who encourages Tommy to go and get himself a woman. He encounters Maria (Rosario Dawson) a school teacher who is getting her life back in order after her divorce from Benjamin.
Benjamin (David Krumholtz) spots Ashley (Brittany Murphy) working in a cafe and pesters her to go out on a date. Ashley is in two minds about this as she is seeing a married man, Griffin (Stanley Tucci). Griffin tries several times to convince Ashley that he will leave his wife Annie (Heather Graham) for her. Annie, a real estate agent, senses that her husband is up to no good and when she meets up with Tommy to show him some apartments, she questions her marriage to Griffin.
Coming across in tone like SWINGERS, SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK was not only shot in 17 days, but this low budget movie ingeniously used the same apartment as four different sets. The strong point here is it’s witty script complimented with a host of quality actors, further proving that you do not need a large budget to make a good movie. While Heather Graham is the most famous cast member, Edward Burns has also starred in his own share of big budget movies. But it is the reliable Stanley Tucci who, whenever he appears on screen, actually steals his scenes playing the no good two timing dentist.
The scenes are shot as a documentary style, i.e. shaky camera, and the believable way the characters seem to stumble over their words to get the point across makes the movie feel genuine. Burns lets his actors feel their way into their characters and the results are rewarding. It is difficult not to like the effort that comes from this movie.
