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, in his eyes, a girl stops having cooties. 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 five. 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 wear as 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 on 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.
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