Little City

Adam (Josh Charles), who is living with Nina (Annabella Sciorra), still pines for now-lesbian ex-girlfriend Kate (Joanna Going), who just caught her lover Ann (Jobeth Williams) in bed with Rebecca (Penelope Ann Miller), a bartender who is also interested in Adam and works with Kevin (Jon Bon Jovi), Adam's best friend who is also having an affair with Nina. The title Little City doesn't quite do justice to the slightly incestuous shenanigans in this San Francisco-set relationship comedy, which doesn't so much end as run out of permutations between its six characters. It's not a bad film, full of appealing actors (Charles and Miller are particularly sharp together) and reasonably intelligent dialogue. It's just a really contrived one, the sort of film where every principal character gets some device to permit self-revelatory monologues--a confessional, a 12-step meeting, a therapy session, etc. It's also not nearly as hip or insightful as it seems to believe, despite its pan-sexual milieu and non-stop musings on the complexities of love and sex. Little City is a pleasant enough diversion, but you'll have to get past a certain been-there-done-that vibe (though the film may be worth it just for one clever take on the residents of three major American cities). Like the characters in the film, you'll probably feel you keep running into these people over and over again. Optional. (S. Renshaw)