''Love in the Time of Money'' is a 2002 American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

written and directed by Peter Mattei, and starring Steve Buscemi,

Vera Farmiga Vera Ann Farmiga ( ; born August 6, 1973) is an American actress who is best known for portraying paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring Universe films '' The Conjuring'' (2013), '' The Conjuring 2'' (2016), '' Annabelle Co ...

Rosario Dawson Rosario Isabel Dawson (born May 9, 1979) is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in the 1995 independent drama ''Kids''. Her subsequent film roles include ''He Got Game'' (1998), '' Josie and the Pussycats'' (2001), ''Men in Bl ...

Malcolm Gets Malcolm Gets (born December 28, 1963) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Richard in the American television sitcom '' Caroline in the City''. Gets is also a dancer, singer, composer, classically trained pianist, vocal direct ...

Jill Hennessy Jillian Noel Hennessy (born November 25, 1968) is a Canadian actress and singer. She is most known for her roles on the American television series '' Law & Order'', on which she played prosecutor Claire Kincaid for three seasons, and ''Crossin ...

, and

Adrian Grenier Adrian Sean Grenier (born July 10, 1976) is an American actor, producer, director and musician. He is best known for his portrayal of Vincent Chase in the television series ''Entourage'' (2004–2011). He has appeared in films such as ''Drive Me ...

. The film, executive produced by Robert Redford, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 11, 2002. It had a limited release in the United States on November 1, 2002. Production began in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

on January 29, 2000.

Plot

New York serves as a backdrop for a cast of characters in search of love, lust or lucre including a woman who makes awkward moves on the man renovating her SoHo loft, an embezzler, a sleazy artist and a phone psychic.

Cast

* Steve Buscemi as Martin Kunkle *

as Greta *

as Anna *

as Robert Walker *

as Nick *

as Ellen Walker *

Carol Kane Carolyn Laurie Kane (born June 18, 1952) is an American actress. She became known in the 1970s and 1980s in films such as '' Hester Street'' (for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress), ''Dog Day Afternoon'', ''Annie ...

as Joey *

Michael Imperioli Michael Imperioli (born March 26, 1966) is an American actor, writer, and musician. He is best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti in the HBO crime drama ''The Sopranos'' (1999–2007), which earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Ou ...

as Will *

Domenick Lombardozzi Domenico "Domenick" Lombardozzi (, ; born March 25, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Herc in ''The Wire'', and is also known for his roles in ''A Bronx Tale'' (1993), '' Entourage'', and ''The Irishman'' (2019). Ca ...

as Eddie Iovine * Nahanni Johnstone as Marianne Jones * Alexa Fischer as Elaine * Ross Gibby as Jack * John Ottavino as Mark Jones *

Tamara Jenkins Tamara Jenkins (born May 2, 1962) is an American filmmaker and occasional actress. She is best known for her feature films ''Slums of Beverly Hills'' (1998), '' The Savages'' (2007), and ''Private Life'' (2018). Early life Jenkins was born in ...

as Gallery Owner

Reception

Critical response

The film received a mostly negative response from film critics. On review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an 18% approval rating, based on 39 critical reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/10. A. O. Scott of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' wrote, "Mr. Mattei's use of digital video, his fondness for extreme close-ups and his balky, fumbling dialogue were clearly meant to give ''Love in the Time of Money'' a rough, naturalistic feel. But those techniques only highlight the film's artificiality, making you gratingly aware of how much has been left out and how much of the drama is based on secondhand assumptions rather than genuine insight."

Lisa Schwarzbaum Lisa Schwarzbaum (born July 5, 1952) is an American film critic. She joined ''Entertainment Weekly'' as a film critic in the 1990s and remained there until February 2013. Career She has been featured on CNN, co-hosted '' Siskel & Ebert at the Mov ...

of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'' wrote, "It's not about love. It's not about money. It's not even about sex, although the transaction of cold, love-starved sexual business propels the daisy-chain encounters that make up ''Love in the Time of Money''. If anything, theater director Peter Mattei's dingy, mannered, visually ragged resetting of Max Ophuls' unimprovable 1950 beaut ''La Ronde'' (based on an 1896 play by Arthur Schnitzler) is about scenes of cap-A acting by a roundup of cap-I indie thespians, captured on brutally flat and blotchy cap-DV digital video." Duane Byrge of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

'' wrote, "Despite the evocative aesthetics evincing the hollow state of modern love life, the film never percolates beyond a monotonous whine."

Accolades

External links

* * *

References

{{Reflist, 30em 2002 films 2002 romantic comedy-drama films American romantic comedy-drama films Films shot in New York City Films scored by Theodore Shapiro 2000s English-language films 2000s American films