Love, sex and relationships

Filmed in an obtrusive and rugged style, ‘Sidewalks of New York’ is a movie bent on dissecting the trinity of life – love, sex and relationships.
The film’s strong points rely mainly on two key aspects: acting and style. Ed Burns directs his third film, once again focusing on his favorite topic providing another refreshing take on that heart-breaking problem. The most enjoyable concept about Burns is that this actor/director/writer/producer is ‘having his cake and eating it too’.
Burns has easily crossed from commercial products to his ‘indie-style’ fare with films such as ‘Saving Private Ryan’ to his current film. Easily starring in major films and then shooting a film like this in 17 days is quite the challenge. Yet, it is clear Burns is ready for this.
Picking up on Woody Allen’s style of editing in which characters are shot with a hand-held camera from the same angle yet in different perspectives; Burns presents us with a surprisingly bleak view of love, sex and relationships. Filled with ‘cutthroat’ dialogue and strong performances by Rosario Dawson, David Krumholtz and Brittany Murphy, this film dissects and pieces together love and its’ strengths and needed improvements.
With a strong, young cast this film brings us into the heart of three interconnected stories that make us simultaneously sympathize and loathe our characters. Case in point: Stanley Tucci plays a womanizing, adulterous dentist who in his manipulative ways tends to manipulate and use the women in his life. His wife played by Heather Graham is cast as his voluptuous trophy wife who suspects her cheating husband and presents herself with a dilemma: stay and cheat herself, or leave and start a new life.
Also, it would be a crime not to mention Dennis Farina’s turn as a New York Playboy who thinks he knows everything about women. So much so that before leaving on a date, Farina’s character suggests to Burn’s Riley character that he adds cologne to his testicles for that flavourful scent.
Meanwhile, Burns stars as another Irish character that has just turned single again and is looking for a woman who he can start a family with; but it isn’t that simple. Pregnancies, sex, truisms and communication impede his chances for happiness as all our characters embark on journey to discover themselves and love – in some surprisingly depressing, bleak ways.
Burns uses his camera to film his actors in motion, rather than from a distance, creating a sense of intimacy. Coupled with this aspect is the fact that our characters speak to the screen while completing a faux-documentary set around their experiences.
The unfortunate part of this film is that we as the audience know this is just an excuse for our characters to blatantly express what they are thinking for the sake of plot progression. These interview scenes interject in between the film and in an odd manner; add a sense of commonality with our characters that makes it easy for the audience to sympathize with.
It may seem apparent that the film can be slow-paced at times and might even be a tad surreal, yet the story remains compelling and the performances steer this in the right direction.
Burns uses his ‘hand-held’ camera and natural light to portray the characters not as icons, but quite possibly as examples to look upon.
In an interesting way, this film is by no means a must see. Yet what it is, is an interesting commentary on what love, sex and relationships is really like.
Burns makes no intentions of sugar-coating the ‘happy ever after’ fairy tale of love, yet makes sure he also conveys that it still might be possible.

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