It was an uncomfortable moment for the people in the movie theater.
There they were, looming in the background as Ed Burns' character chatted away on the screen, the twin towers of the World Trade Center. That this famous landmark was featured in a scene - in several scenes - of director-actor Burns' New York-centered film "Sidewalks of New York" is no surprise. How could a film claim to capture the spirit of the Big Apple without it?
Yet coming on the heels of a huge debate in Hollywood about the appropriateness of depicting the towers in film - whether they should be digitally edited out, whether the films should not be released, whether they should remain as a testament to American democracy and perseverance or otherwise "the terrorists win" - "Sidewalks of New York" proves itself to be an interesting test case.
The film is a chatty meditation on love, sex and singledom in New York, as it addresses the oh-so-pressing issues of fidelity and how long into a relationship sex is appropriate. It's a modest, thoughtful film that, in other social contexts, is worthy of a good amount of praise for its sensitive portrayals of relationships - whether newly formed or drained by marriage - near their breaking points.
However, the World Trade Center looming in the background - an inclusion that, if not uncomfortable, is at the least distracting - exposes the frivolity of the film's subject matter. The juxtaposition is almost too much to bear, and it rips the viewer from the light-hearted fiction of the film.
This is perhaps an unfair criticism. After all, Ed Burns as a filmmaker has proved himself a talented auteur, capable of crafting subtle pieces, like "Sidewalks" and his debut film "The Brothers McMullen" that draw largely on the director's Irish heritage and matriculation from Queens, N.Y.. This city is his home, his culture, and he portrays it warmly and aptly. But New York is a changed city from the one in which Burns grew up, and this leaves his love letter to the metropolis seeming a bit off the mark.
And this is unfortunate, because all the chemistry was there otherwise. The diverse cast members each put in engaging, yet restrained, performances - especially from Stanley Tucci and Heather Graham, who play a married couple whose run-ins with infidelity and chance encounters have strained their relationship. Burns too, although merely recycling past on-screen portrayals, gives the film its heart. His films seem utterly personal and overwhelmingly autobiographical, whether they are or not, and this provides a welcome contrast to the alienating, over-produced Hollywood schlock.
The film's creators and distributors assuredly were sensitive to the inclusion of the World Trade Center - the film's release date was moved from the week of the attacks to late November. That they chose to keep the towers memorialized in celluloid is no discredit to the film - rather, it positions "Sidewalks of New York" as a nostalgic look to the way things were before, just the escape that film is meant to provide.
