Sidewalks of New York

In this roundelay of Manhattan lives and loves, all-rounder Burns moves upmarket from the down home Irish-American milieu of his 1995 breakthrough The Brothers McMullen. Working in Woody Allen territory, however, leaves his solid mid-table talents slightly exposed; he and his cast graft away honestly enough for results which are far from inspired but just about agreeable. He takes the most attractive male role himself, playing the media type who gets chucked by his girlfriend because he wants kids. The other men fall into the categories of geek or scumbag. Dawson shines brightest, though, pulling the plot together as Burns' potential object of affection and Krumholtz's ex-wife (not that we buy those two as a couple for a minute). Such miscalculations reveal the joins in Burns' grand design, which deploys shaky handheld camera and fake vox pop interviews with the cast in order to appear grittier and more inventive than it actually is.