Once
you have gotten past the “icky” factor of a love
affair between 11-year-olds and have said “yeah,
right” twenty five times, you might enjoy the
2005 romantic comedy for children, Little
Manhattan, a Woody Allen-esque love letter to
New York without the small-minded cynicism.
Directed by Mark Levin, Producer of the TV show
“The Wonder Years,” the film is set in the Upper
West Side of Manhattan between Central Park and
Riverside Drive where all the buildings have a
doorman or an elevator man (or both) (the
closest look I ever got to this part of the city
was from a window on the Fifth Avenue bus).
Almost 11-year-old Gabe (Josh Hutcherson) is a
fifth grader who lives with his divorcing
parents, father Adam (Bradley Whitford) and
mother Leslie (Cynthia Nixon). Though they are
legally separated, they are living together
until their divorce becomes final. Gabe, who
also acts as the narrator, rides around the
neighborhood (limited by his parents to a
nine-block radius) on his scooter, plays
basketball in the school yard, and is being
taught to be a football place kicker by his
father. To further the plot (and for no other
reason), Gabe decides to take a karate class
and, guess what, also taking the class is
Rosemary Telesco (Charlie Ray), a girl he has
known since Kindergarten and the film's “love
interest,” what a coincidence.
Although she is only a few months older than
him, Rosemary has the air of confidence of a
teenager with a developing swagger. She also has
developed a skill at karate that eludes Gabe
(she is the first one to get a yellow belt). Now
that they are in karate together, Gabe sees
Rosemary in a new and different light, and is
confused by these strange feelings. His heart
beats faster, he begins sweating, and stumbles
over his words. Naturally, the two are paired up
as karate partners and she invites him to her
house so they can practice together. Befitting
her parent's “station” in life, Rosemary barely
has time to see Gabe with all her tap dancing
lessons, cello practice, and preparations to be
a flower girl at an upcoming family wedding.
Gabe knows jealousy for the first time, however,
when another student becomes Rosemary's karate
partner. To make matters worse, when
Rosemary tells him she is going away to camp for
a few weeks and plans on enrolling in a private
school, his mood shifts to despair (and an
unconvincing crying jag). Little Manhattan is a
sweet and enjoyable film without any guile that
is about the parents almost as much as the
children and what happens in a relationship when
one of the spouses holds back from expressing
their feelings. While the film is a sincere
attempt to depict a young child's first love,
the script by Jennifer Flackett has a TV sitcom
feel to it and I did not have the experience of
watching actual children in the process of
discovering something new about themselves.
