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PRINCE OF CENTRAL PARK Send This Review to a Friend
As a musical play, "Prince of Central Park" was panned. It has resurfaced in a drama that mixes realism with the aura of a fable, an uneasy combination in this instance. There are a few moving moments, but much of the film, written and directed by John Leekley, is far too precious, unless you require a very high level of sugar.
JJ, played sympathetically by Frankie Nasso, definitely one of the film's assets, lives with an abusive foster care mother (overacted by Cathy Moriarty), and the 14-year-old is obsessed with finding his biological mother, who abandoned him because she was ill. He runs away and hangs out in New York's Central Park, where he encounters a series of important experiences.
Frankie has the good fortune to meet Rebecca, a habitual do-gooder played by Kathleen Turner, who befriends him, and a strange, troll-like Park habitue (Harvey Keitel), who protects him from assailants and dispenses worldly wisdom A sub-plot involving Danny Aiello as Rebecca's husband, who has walked out on her but still harbors a protective affection for her, gets in the way of the main story. Jerry Orbach has a minor role.
The film has enough tender moments to make one wish it were better. But while it is all heart, its heart is worn on its sleeve, and the Central Park sequences are more lumpy than magical. A Lions Gate release.
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