Adrift in Manhattan

Adrift in Manhattan is a 2007 American drama film directed by Alfredo De Villa and written by Nat Moss based on a story by De Villa. The film centers on New Yorkers who are lonely and emotionally lost in the big city. Adrift in Manhattan features an ensemble cast, including Heather Graham, Victor Rasuk, Dominic Chianese, Elizabeth Peña, and William Baldwin.

The film earned mixed reviews upon release. It was nominated for Best Narrative Feature at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival Feature Competition. It was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the 2007 Indianapolis International Film Festival, the Best Director Prize at the 2007 San Diego Film Festival, and the Special Jury Ensemble Award for best cast at the 2007 Palm Beach International Film Festival.

Rose, an ophthalmologist, has separated from her husband, a school teacher, and is in deep mourning over the recent death of their two-year-old son, who accidentally fell out a window. Tomaso is a painter who has just learned that he's going blind. Simon is a 20-year-old photo shop clerk living at home with his alcoholic mother.

The three strangers live along the 1/9 subway line and two of them connect in a profound way. Simon, using borrowed cameras, becomes obsessed with Rose's scarf and begins stalking her to take her picture. When she learns what he is doing, her reaction is unexpected.

Alfredo De Villa came up with the concept of Adrift in Manhattan while flying to a festival in Havana, Cuba, to present his 2002 film Washington Heights:

While I was naturally thrilled and excited, I was also exhausted. I realized--at least, based on my personal experience--that while we have all of these technological advances that takes us from the most recondite to the most elegant cities in the world, we're essentially left emotionally (not to say spiritually) at bay. We don't necessarily change or become enlightened with every journey we undertake. I was born in Puebla, Mexico, and here I was heading to Havana, Cuba, a place that existed only in my imagination; I never thought I'd be doing so much traveling. The sense of immediate direction strikingly contrasted with the emotional isolation.

I thought of exploring this basic idea within three characters. Why three? I'm not sure. That number has always contained something balanced and just right. So I settled on the number while I was sitting in the plane (by that time, we had already landed and we were waiting to taxi--it took over 2 hours). The other idea that came to me was exploring this sense of tiredness, of solitude (common in most travelers) in the three characters. I quickly made the decision that to explore loneliness, you explore the need for love. I'm attracted to internal characters and ideas. But it's hard to explore internal characters and ideas in film, so I turned it into its positive, which, in turn, can be turned into action. I decided to explore love instead.

De Villa said that he initially wanted the film to have a "slow, small movement." "The story was always going to be as big as the characters. Never bigger than them. It was a challenge to ourselves to see if we could pull it off." The screenplay for Adrift in Manhattan was written by Nat Moss, who previously worked with De Villa on Washington Heights. According to De Villa: