Little Manhattan

“Little Manhattan”

USA. 2005. Directed by Mark Levin. Written by Jennifer Flackett. Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Charlie Ray, Bradley Whitford, Cynthia Nixon, Willie Garson, Tonye Patano, Josh Pais, John Dossett and Talia Balsam.

Rating: ★★★½

When I was in kindergarten, I remember there was a girl whom I thought had quite a crush on me and my parents would tease me about her. She was skinny, curly, red-haired and, of course, taller than I was. We were playmates from time to time, but I felt a little awkward about all the attention she was giving me because, of course, girls have cooties. As I watched the unusually charming and sweet “Little Manhattan,” I wondered whether I would have thought differently if I had met her again five or six years later.

The movie tells the story of what happens to an 11-year old boy when a girl stops having cooties in his eyes. The boy is Gabe (Josh Hutcherson), who narrates his all too familiar school life. Boys and girls are playmates in kindergarten, and then the iron curtain comes down and guys and girls never mingle.

He certainly thought the same way about Rosemary (Charlie Ray), whom he was playmates with when they were 5. That is, until he sees her again in karate class. Then, she takes him to a nearby store where she needs to pick out a dress to be a flower girl. When he sees her in a pink dress, his heart begins to throb.

The film’s title, “Little Manhattan” makes it sound like it is some lighter version of vintage Woody Allen but this rare, young-hearted New York love story rightly strays far away from the wisecracks. Characters in those witty adult romantic comedies speak clever banter and jokes to dance around their obvious mutual affection. When we are young, all we have are the confusing, awkward emotions of finding first love. The film humorously captures all of that as Gabe wonders whether he should hold Rosemary's hand or maybe kiss her while they walk through Central Park or cruise through the streets in his scooter.

Director Mark Levin and writer Jennifer Flackett are sneaky in the way they weave their spell in the story. We know the ending will more than likely be bittersweet, as the preteens cannot exactly plan for the future and make a real lifetime of commitment. But their story transforms all the familiar modern romantic cliches by intently filtering them through the eyes of 11-year olds (such as their karate sparring fights as kids becoming the equivalent of a pillow fight for adults). And because the movie is so endearing without being cloying, and Hutcherson and Ray have such natural chemistry together with very little dialogue, we can’t help but root for them to stay together. It puts to shame all the other dull adult romantic comedies whose characters play foolish, deceptive games to the point of idiocy.

The screenplay also smartly does not settle for simplistic life lessons within its treatment of Gabe’s less than idealistic family situation. His parents, Adam (Bradley Whitford) and Leslie (Cynthia Nixon) are in the midst of finalizing a divorce, only that he has not moved out yet because he has not yet found an apartment. When Gabe asks his father, “What is it about girls?” the latter does not attempt to give any half-hearted word of wisdom but instead gives an honest answer suggesting that perhaps the father could take a nod from his son to rediscover the novelty of falling in love.

By intersecting these two stories, the film finds subtle insights a romantic novelist would have trouble essaying. Many people often think that idealism is associated with youth and they only grow more cynical as they mature. But acting on idealism requires maturity, too, and is not necessarily mutually exclusive with realism, as this movie suggests. If the young couple had met another five years later, they would better know how to sustain the feelings they share.

Puppy love is a concept that adults and teenagers would brush aside as immature and inconsequential but “Little Manhattan,” like all great family films, lets us reach into our own identifiable feelings from childhood. For Gabe and Rosemary, the most important thing is not that they end up together but that they actually took the chance. That will prepare them for whatever other challenge they may face in life. And a first love, puppy or otherwise, only happens once.