NAKED IN NEW YORK
A film review by Chuck Dowling
Copyright 1997 Chuck Dowling
Naked in New York (1994) **1/2 out of ***** - Cast: Eric Stoltz, Mary-Louise Parker, Ralph Macchio, Kathleen Turner, Tony Curtis, Timothy Dalton, Jill Clayburgh, Whoopi Goldberg, Griffin Dunne, Chris Noth. Directed By: Dan Algrant. Running Time: 91 minutes.
"Naked in New York" tells an all too familiar story about trying to maintain a relationship while trying to maintain a career, and deciding overall which is more important. Well, it attempts to tell that story.
Eric Stoltz plays an aspiring writer who meets photographer Mary-Louise Parker while in college. They move in together and everything seems fine. Then, after a while, Stoltz gets an offer to have one of his plays produced, but in New York City. At the same time, Parker also gets an opportunity to further her photography career. He moves out to New York, and their only communication is the occasional phone call.
The film then shifts gears (meaning: it doesn't know what it wants to be) as Stoltz tries to get his play ready to premiere. His producer (Tony Curtis) has faith in him, but various problems slow his efforts. Late in the film there's some needless full frontal Eric Stoltz, part of a dream sequence which seemingly served no purpose except to justify the film's title. Whoopi Goldberg plays a concrete face in a wall, and really, that's the best way I can describe it.
The film was entertaining enough to get a good rating, until it ends with a "non-ending" where nothing is resolved. Its message is that no matter what happens to you in life, everything will turn out okay in the end. What fantasy land does this screenwriter live in? Martin Scorsese served as executive producer. [R]
-- Chuck Dowling Visit Chuck's Movie Reviews at http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Over 1,600 movies rated and/or reviewed! Movie news, film related links, and reader's reviews.
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