Taglines: In a city of 8 million people, what are the odds the perfect two will meet?
Six New Yorkers have an interrelated series of relationships. TV producer Tommy, who’s just broken up with his girlfriend, has a short relationship with commitment-phobe Maria, who he meets in a video store, and also hooks up with married real-estate agent Annie, who he meets while apartment hunting. Annie is open to a relationship because her husband, Griffin, is cheating on her, which she slowly comes to realize through talking to her friend / co-worker who’s gone through the same thing.
Griffin, a 39-year-old dentist, is cheating with 19-year-old waitress Ashley, who he picked up in a park; she realizes she can do better when Ben, a hotel doorman and aspiring musician, tries to pick her up, in a belated attempt to recover from his divorce a year ago from schoolteacher Maria (the same Maria from the video store). Most of these relationships seem driven more by a desperate need to be in a relationship than actual love.
Sidewalks of New York is a 2001 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Edward Burns, who also stars in the film. The plot follows eight cycles in the lives of six Manhattan residents whose inter-connections form a circle that places each of them less than the proverbial six degrees of separation from the others.
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2001. Following the terrorist attacks three days later, Paramount Classics withheld its release until late November. Although the World Trade Center looms behind Tommy during his interviews, the image of the twin towers in the original promotional poster was deleted.
In an episode of the Sundance Channel series Anatomy of a Scene that focused on the film, Burns revealed he shot the film in only seventeen days, working with a budget of $1 million. Many of the locations used were within the same neighborhood in order to facilitate a quick move from one to the other. The film played on 224 screens and grossed $2,402,459 in the United States. The international box office accounted for another $1.1 million.
About the Story
The circle begins with Tommy Reilly, a onetime wannabe writer who became the producer of a weekly television entertainment news show by design rather than choice, and has stayed with it for the money rather than any professional satisfaction. Dumped by his live-in girlfriend without warning, he temporarily moves in with colleague Carpo, an aging Lothario ready to offer unlimited — and useless — romantic advice.
At a video store Tommy meets grammar school teacher Maria Tedesko. The two flirt, meet for coffee, and begin to date. Maria, recently divorced, finds it difficult to commit to a new relationship and stops taking Tommy’s calls. When she discovers she’s pregnant, she attempts to reconnect with him, but at the last moment opts to lie and tell him she’s leaving town and chooses to raise the child on her own.
Maria’s ex-husband, who longs to reconcile with her, is Benjamin Bazler, an apartment house doorman and aspiring songwriter whose obsession is 1960s/1970s rock music. He shares his dream of becoming a full-time musician with Iowa transplant Ashley, an NYU student working as a coffee shop waitress to support herself.
Ashley is involved in an affair with considerably older married dentist Griffin Ritso. Although he professes to love his mistress, the once divorced Griffin shies away from leaving his wife Annie Matthews for fear of being a two-time loser at matrimony. Eventually Griffin’s inability to commit to their relationship causes Ashley to dump him and reject his advances to get her back as she becomes involved in a relationship with Benjamin.
Real estate broker Annie is unhappy with her marriage but too moral to consider having an affair. She finds herself confiding in and flirting with one of her house-hunting clients — Tommy Reilly. Thus the circle is complete.
Sidewalks of New York (2001)
Directed by: Edward Burns
Starring: Edward Burns, Heather Graham, Dennis Farina, David Krumholtz, Brittany Murphy, Stanley Tucci, Rosario Dawson, Penny Balfour, Nadia Dajani
Screenplay by: Edward Burns
Cinematography by: Frank Prinzi
Film Editing by: David Greenwald
Costume Design by: Catherine Marie Thomas
Makeup Department; Nicki Ledermann
MPAA Rating: R for sexual content and language.
Distributed by: Paramount Classics
Release Date: November 21, 2001
Visits: 102
