NAKED IN NEW YORK

In NAKED IN NEW YORK, Eric Stoltz portrays Jake Briggs, an aspiring young playwright laboring to get his play produced Off-Broadway. With the aid of narration and flashbacks, the movie is the story of both Jake’s past and current relationships, consisting of an eccentric single mother (Jill Clayburgh), an on-again, off-again lover (Mary-Louise Parker), her smooth-talking employer (Timothy Dalton), a male friend who harbors some homosexual feelings for him, the producer who finally brings the play to Off-Broadway (Tony Curtis), and the soap opera queen hired to give the play “star power” (Kathleen Turner). The nature of contemporary relationships is explored while Jake struggles with an overhaul of his play and a diva who seduces him and abandons the project when something better comes along.

NAKED IN NEW YORK is reminiscent of the Woody Allen school of urban anxiety. However, Like Jake’s play, this film has its moments, but the entire package doesn’t amount to much. After all is said and done (including, unfortunately, a couple of explicit sexual encounters and a fair amount of harsh language), we are left only with a lame affirmation that “things will probably turn out OK.” This is feeble optimism indeed, built on rapidly shifting sand rather than a bedrock of assurance that our lives have an Author and Designer.