Somewhere in the City

Sandra Bernhard plays a "food therapist" in the middle of a wacky melange of characters and their attendant subplots in this frenzied look at the pursuit of love in New York's Lower East Side. Writer/director Ramin Niami's bustling little picture creates an atmosphere in which consistent mirth if not uncontrollable laughter relieves the near impossibility of following the various plot lines. Bernhard's Betty is trying to help Lu Lu (Bai Ling) find a husband to facilitate her obtaining a green card. Elsewhere in the same tenement building an odd couple couples twice daily, often observed by the young woman's (Ornella Muti) paramour, a dashing but utterly incompetent crook, who is planning a master crime, and, of course, lives in the same building. Then there's the gay Shakespearean actor supporting himself by doing inane commercials, and the rich kid revolutionary in the basement whose Park Avenue mom calls him constantly on his cell phone. With characters like that in a nutty, funky setting, how can a flick lose? A gently funny film about endearingly eccentric characters, this is a strong optional purchase. (M.Tribby)