Sidewalks of New York

Ed Burns is an interesting case. He was an indie darling in the '90s with The Brothers McMullen, and then followed that up with the well-received She's the One. I remember telling someone I was going to see that, and she said, "Oh, the new Ed Burns movie." Now I'm afraid no one says that.

Burns is still making movies, I see on IMDB, but he is no longer relevant. His third film, No Looking Back, was released without fanfare and did little business. Even as an actor he hasn't done much, despite getting a plumb role in Saving Private Ryan. He's done a few films for hire since then, but he seems not be interested in pursuing that.

His fourth feature, Sidewalks of New York, was released in 2001 (delayed a bit by 9/11) and did do about 2 million in business. I took a look last night, and it's not a bad film, but not a very good one, either. I was intrigued by the structure, which is kind of sophisticated: six New Yorkers are connected in a kind of daisy chain, with each person somehow romantically involved with the person to the right or left of them. Let's see if I can simply this: Burns' character dates Rosario Dawson, who is the ex-wife of David Krumholtz, who is dating Brittany Murphy, who is sleeping with married man Stanley Tucci, who is married to Heather Graham, who is kind of interested in Burns.

This roundelay is well done, with some clever writing and, as seen above, a pretty good second-line cast. Here's the problem--you can't do a romantic dramedy like this without the specter of Woody Allen popping into your head. Burns, who was sort of tagged as the Irish Woody Allen, uses Allen's template on this, reminding one of Hannah and Her Sisters and especially Husbands and Wives, since Burns uses a handheld camera and faux-documentary style interviews. Allen does not have the patent on this type of film, but if you're going to do one you have some big shoes to fill, and Burns leaves lots of room at the toe.

Sidewalks of New York is occasionally funny, especially when dealing with Krumholtz, but nowhere near as funny as Allen. It has some heart-wringing moments, but not up to Allen's standards. And the interview portions are a complete waste of time, as the characters basically reinforce what they're doing in the movie. It's like, "here's what I'm about to do," and then we see them do it.

There's also a cliche that I particularly hate in romantic comedies--each of the six characters has the confidante that gives them advice. They range from Dennis Farina, as Burns' co-worker, a horrible character that advises him to sleep with as many women as possible (and put cologne on his balls), to a rock and roll type who tells Krumholtz he has to get back in the game, too. These friend characters have no particular depth, they are just plot devices, sounding boards for the main characters. It's lazy writing.

I will give Burns credit for not sugar-coating it, though. Tucci, in particular, plays a noxious character with no apologies, rationalizing his philandering while we feel inordinately bad for Graham. Everything appears to end okay for everyone but Tucci, but there are no guarantees, and this is not happily ever after.

As the title suggests, New York plays a big part in the film. All five boroughs are represented by the characters' origins, and there's a nice scene between Burns and Graham when he tells her that the bridge and tunnel people (he's from Queens) built the city. She retorts that she can trace her ancestry back to the original Dutch settlers, so who's the real New Yorker?

I'm sorry that Burns' films haven't gotten more exposure. To my astonishment, he's directed eight more films since Sidewalks of New York, but I'm not sure any of them got any kind of release. Too bad.