A delicate piece with good performances and an intriguing enough setup, the drama ultimately doesn't go anywhere definite or distinctive enough to leave a lasting impression.
Adrift in Manhattan (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:9
Fresh:4
Rotten:5
Average Rating:5.2/10
Theatrical Release:2007
Synopsis: A lush meditation on isolation and intersection in the big city, Alfredo de Villa's Adrift in Manhattan is the layered story of three characters who find courage to move to the next stage of life... A lush meditation on isolation and intersection in the big city, Alfredo de Villa's Adrift in Manhattan is the layered story of three characters who find courage to move to the next stage of life through profound encounters with strangers they meet on their daily routes. Rose, an optometrist paralyzed by crushing grief after the death of her infant, has built a wall around herself, unable to relate to her estranged husband or anyone else. When an elderly patient, a painter losing his eyesight, begins to visit her office unannounced, Rose registers how alone he is, urging him to reach out and ask for help -- something neither does easily. Meanwhile Simon, a late-blooming teenager with an overbearing mother, photographs people at a distance with a borrowed long lens. One day, Rose, beautiful and melancholy in a vibrant scarf, comes into focus in his camera sight. The pictures he shoots become a conduit for each of them to touch something deep within and expand their confining existence. With raw, exacting performances by a top-notch cast, including Heather Graham, Dominic Chianese, Elizabeth Peņa, and Victor Rasuk (of Raising Victor Vargas fame), Adrift in Manhattan wields fertile metaphors and a sophisticated sense of psychology to penetrate the subtle process of human transformation and the possibilities for meaningful interchange lying dormant in contemporary urban life. --© Sundance Film Festival [More]
Starring: Heather Graham, Victor Rasuk, Dominic Chianese, Elizabeth Peņa
Starring: Heather Graham, Victor Rasuk, Dominic Chianese, Elizabeth Peņa, William Baldwin, Erika Michels, Marlene Forte
Director: Alfredo de Villa
Director: Alfredo de Villa
Screenwriter: Nat Moss
Story: Alfredo de Villa
Producer: Stephen J. Brown, Joshua Blum
Composer: Michael A. Levine
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Reviews for Adrift in Manhattan
You can't build a movie around lingering, soulful shots of the No. 1 train zooming up and down the West Side.
...overall, his [Alfredo De Villa's] latest flick is dramatically tepid.
Throw a rock into any year's Sundance guide and you're guaranteed to hit at least two or three multi-pronged grave and oh-so-earnest weep-dramas like this one.
Better directed than written, de Villa's meditation on loss, loneliness, and alientaion in urban New York is downbeat, slow, studied, and a bit pretentious, but it's nicely acted by the entire cast, particularly Victor Rasuk and Dominic Chianese.
Adrift is a small film with great humanity and deserves a broader audience than it's likely to get.
Adrift in Manhattan is a quietly moving film about alienation and connection.
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September 20, 2007:
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