THE ONLY LIVING BOY IN NEW YORK- Review

This weekend presents us with another film set in Manhattan, but the locale is the only thing it has in common with MENASHE. Well, it does deal with a father-son conflict, though the duo here is worlds apart from the shop clerk and his pre-teen progeny. For this release we’re taken from the orthodox Jewish community of Brooklyn to the posh, intellectual upper west side, and the son is a good ten years older, a twenty-something. The conflict here concerns something, really someone, the two men have in common,  unknown to the patriarch. Though the son shares the frustrations about gentrification (“The city’s losing its soul”) with his parents’ friends, in many ways he may really still be on the cusp of adulthood, hence his status as THE ONLY LIVING BOY IN NEW YORK. And no, it’s not another post-apocalyptic, dystopian teens fighting for humanity opus, thank heavens.

It is set in the modern-day, as the opening title line-drawn animation informs us of the current state of the city, with the fleeing suburbanites returning to make NYC less dangerous…and interesting. We then meet the “title boy”, 23 year-old Thomas Webb (Callum Turner), a college graduate paying his bills as a Spanish tutor and living in a walk-up apartment on the lower east side. This is seen as an act of defiance by his father Ethan (Pierce Brosnan), owner of a small book publishing company. Perhaps he’s right, since Dad squelched his son’s own early literary aspirations by dismissing his work has “serviceable”. But Thomas still has much affection and concern for his mother Judith (Cynthia Nixon), a former artist who now channels her creativity by planning lavish dinner parties featuring a who’s who’s of NYC’s best and brightest. Judith’s also emotionally fragile, so Thomas tries to spend lots of time with her. He also spends time with a beautiful bookseller named Mimi (Kiersey Clemons). Thomas is smitten, but after a drug and booze-fueled one night stand, Mimi has firmly put him back in the “friend zone”. It was a mistake, a “one time thing”, since she’s got a boyfriend in a band who always seems to be on the road. But she still enjoys hanging out with him, which proves to be torture for Thomas. One evening, the frustrated young man meets his new neighbor, a much older man, sixty-something W.F. Gerald (Jeff Bridges), who inquires about his dour attitude. Soon Thomas opens up to the man who becomes a fatherly mentor, dispensing sage wisdom about life and love as they enjoy cigars and scotch. Then Thomas’s world cracks up when he and Mimi go to a high-class burlesque nightclub. He spies his father in the company of an alluring dark-haired younger woman. What if Judith finds out? He tracks her down and begins to “tail” the lady, first joined by Mimi, then solo. Eventually Thomas confronts the mystery woman, a free-lance editor named Johanna (Kate Beckinsale). He warns her to stay away from Ethan, while she believes he has other motives. A flirtation begins which sparks a wild romance, a very hush-hush affair. Has Thomas given up on Mimi? Can they keep this family destroying secret between them? Could things get even messier? Yeah, probably.

An impressive cast has been assembled for this very weird love triangle, but they’re tripped up by a script with an abrasive character at its center. Turner does his best to bring some humanity and depth to the mawkish self-absorbed Thomas, to no avail. He seems at times like a petulant adolescent just moments before throwing a tantrum when a shiny new toy is denied. Of course, the object of his main desire is the too flighty Mimi, Clemons projects smart sensuality, but it’s never clear why she continues to “lead on” then push away Thomas (perhaps she’s keeping him for a “back up” if the bad boy musician goes off with some groupies. Still, her character is more thought out than the siren cipher Johanna. Beckinsale is very believable as the high society knockout, but her dialogue is mainly riddles and admonitions. It’s never clear why she decides to juggle father and son, especially since there’s so little chemistry with Turner. Nixon, on the other hand, is the ethereal nurturer. Her Judith seems the fragile flower, but Nixon shows that there’s a lot more going on behind those clouded eyes. Bridges appears to be concocting a stew of some familiar recent roles for the oddball writer. He’s a bit of THE GIVER, a dollop of “The Dude”, with a layer of David Lynch (in his hair style and fashion sense). And yet again, his growling gritted jaw-line delivery becomes distracting. Oddly the actor who does some of his best work here may be Brosnan as a character we think is a heart-less, gold-grabbing philandering villain. However, Ethan has the most compelling “arc”, especially in the film’s last act when the triangle finally meets (connects, I suppose).

Amazingly this is the second feature this year from the prolific director Marc Webb, but with last April’s GIFTED he had a much more compelling story for that talented cast to explore. The New York locations are stunning (especially the wedding reception at a museum), but many of themes come of as “riffs” on much better Woody Allen flicks (a bit of HANNAH here, some MANHATTAN there). Plus many of the sophisticated dialogue comes off as coy and precious (like the opening scene cartoon). And the big emotional reveal in the final moments would be more at home in a daytime TV drama. The iconic city streets and Ms. Beckinsale are lovely, but THE ONLY LIVING BOY IN NEW YORK has little life or originality.

2.5 Out of 5