Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Ten-year-old Gabe Burton is just an average kid growing up in Manhattan until Rosemary Telesco walks into his karate class. But before Gabe can tell Rosemary how he feels, she reveals that she won't be going to public school any more. Gabe has a lot more to learn about life, love, and girls.
Little Manhattan is a charming, earnest coming-of-age romance seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old in New York City. The plot is sweet but slender — a first-crush story with minimal complication — earning a solid but unremarkable 3. The child performances, particularly Josh Hutcherson, are natural and appealing, though not transcendent. Cinematography captures Manhattan warmly but conventionally. Novelty is modest: the premise of childhood love narrated with adult romantic vocabulary is a pleasant conceit but not truly singular, placing it comfortably at 3. The ending is its weakest element — the resolution feels abrupt and somewhat unsatisfying, leaning on a voiceover wrap-up that doesn't quite earn its emotional closure.