Peter Mattei's depressing, bleakly humorous drama paints a grim portrait of life in the big city. The film follows nine confused and desperate New Yorkers who are looking for love in all the wrong places: an inexperienced prostitute (Vera Farmiga), a troubled contractor (Domenick... [More]

Peter Mattei's depressing, bleakly humorous drama paints a grim portrait of life in the big city. The film follows nine confused and desperate New Yorkers who are looking for love in all the wrong places: an inexperienced prostitute (Vera Farmiga), a troubled contractor (Domenick Lombardozzi), an unstable housewife (Jill Hennessy), her repressed husband (Malcolm Gets), a smitten artist (Steve Buscemi), a beautiful gallery worker (Rosario Dawson), her free-spirited boyfriend (Adrien Grenier), a lonely psychic (Carol Kane), and a suicidal businessman (Michael Imperioli). As these characters listlessly bump into and out of one another's lives, it becomes painfully clear just how desperate they are to make a connection. By using a non-traditional, episodic chain reaction technique, Mattei is able to better represent the broad range of character types and personalities that populate New York City. And while these individuals may be superficially distinct based on profession or personal appearance, their inner torment is the same. They are all lonely, unhappy, and desperately searching for an interaction that will numb their pain, if only for a few fleeting moments. Unfortunately for them, Mattei doesn't provide any fairy tale endings, which brings even more reality to their already depressing lives. [Less]