Sidewalks of New York

Washington Post Rita Kempley

The chatty, romantic roundelay takes a lighthearted look at the misadventures of six in the city.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

There's a lot of talk about sex in Sidewalks of New York, but precious little of it. And that's part of the point.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Burns' movie shows a Woody.esque affection for a certain slice of New York and its denizens (with the angst and neuroses quieted down a notch or two).

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's by far the best cast Burns has assembled -- so much so that, unlike his other films, he doesn't come near dominating it.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is funny without being hilarious, touching but not tearful, and articulate in the way that Burns is articulate, by nibbling earnestly around an idea as if afraid that the core has seeds.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Romantic comedies don't have to be profound when they are as appealing as this one.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

The film's flaws seem unimportant, and it passes the big test, making you want to find out what happens to these characters, even when what does happen is predictable.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Improves as it unfolds.

Film Threat Rich Cline

The story is tight and engaging, the acting first-rate, the themes solid and presented without being sentimental or preachy. But let's hope his next film ("Ash Wednesday") has something new to say.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The time is right for a breezy, captivating New York romantic comedy. Sidewalks of New York is not an especially good movie, but it will do.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Isn't much more than a student film made by a talented amateur who's in over his head. Burns has a decent eye and a breezy sense of pace, and he'll make better movies if he remembers where he came from.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

It's a veritable Greek chorus of wry therapeutic chatter, the touchy-feely pensées skittering over the stock dualities of adultery and fidelity, lust and devotion, narcissism and intimacy, blah, blah, blah.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Burns has a hard time finding a central idea, some overall point that isn't borrowed or trite. Or both.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Despite a synthetic optimism in the script, the movie's pervasive bleakness is relieved only by some bright performances.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Though the acting in "Sidewalks" is uniformly fine, particularly among the female cast, it's hard to glimpse any meaningful vision, sly insights or cinematic flair.

TV Guide Steve Simels

Charming, low-key ensemble comedy that recalls the films of both John Cassavetes and Woody Allen, which is to say it's a loosely structured, quasi-improvisational saga about a bunch of New Yorkers obsessing about relationships.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

Wispy, cosmopolitan slice-of-life.

USA Today Mike Clark

Those who teach public speaking sometimes advocate telling your audience what you're going to tell them, then actually telling them, then telling them what you've told them. Sidewalks reproves this isn't a wise path for movies.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Wears out its welcome fast because of its artistic pretensions and self-absorbed characters. You'd be better off renting "Manhattan" instead.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

It makes the same misstep that Allen's comedies often do: It assumes that the lives of these people are only about sex and love, and so that's all we ever see of them. This one-and-a-half-dimensionality wears thin.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Burns' trite talk and familiar romantic conflicts doesn't do any of the characters any favors. Everyone comes off flat and forced, with one notable and lovely exception: Dawson.

New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson

Too bad it isn't quite funny enough to be mistaken for "Jackass."

Los Angeles Times John Anderson

The assumption among many when the movie was postponed was that Paramount Classics felt New Yorkers weren't emotionally equipped for something bright or frothy or vivacious. They needn't have been concerned.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

Burns, who made a career out of his mildly charming Irish-American rogue persona, has, with his latest and fourth feature, finally sloughed off the remaining traces of that charm, along with, apparently, the vestiges of a personality.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

A waterlogged bagel, hardly the valentine to New York it imagines itself to be.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Though the writing doesn't work, you have to give Burns credit for shrewd direction. He gets the best performances I've seen from Graham and Murphy.

Variety Scott Foundas

Not just instantly forgettable, but beginning to fade from memory even as its images still play across the screen.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Achieves inadvertent pathos via its own obscene irrelevance.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Dramatically and conceptually, the movie sits there, flat, naked and trying too hard with too little.