'Ten Thousand Saints': Even the scenery steals kids' scenes

Set in 1980s New York, "Ten Thousand Saints" takes a wistful look at the era before yuppies took over the place and cleaned everything up. The Lower East Side comes across as lovably dangerous. Though police may be beating back rioters in Tompkins Square Park, in this film that crisis doesn't get in the way of a couple kids coming of age.

One of them is teenage narrator Jude (Asa Butterfield), a recent transplant from Vermont who is moving in temporarily with his deadbeat dad, Les (Ethan Hawke), a marijuana "botanist," as Les puts it. Les is quite the character: an aging hippie with a wicked sense of humor. Although he hasn't seen his son in many years, his first order of business is to ridicule Jude's weed stash and proclaim that, "From now on, you're only smoking your dad's s---."

Back home, Jude was a bit of a troublemaker, huffing turpentine and stealing drugs. But all that changes when he moves to New York and starts hanging out with Eliza (Hailee Steinfeld) and Johnny (Emile Hirsch). The daughter of Les's girlfriend, Eliza is a rich kid trying to shake a cocaine habit, given that she's pregnant. For both Eliza and Jude, Johnny is a role model of sorts. The older brother of Jude's best friend from back home, he's a Bhagavad Gita-quoting musician and tattoo artist squatting in Alphabet City, where he abstains from drinking, drugs, eating meat and having sex.

Before you know it, the three have formed their own vegan family unit as they try to figure out what to do about Eliza's secret pregnancy. Adding to the angst, Jude pines for Eliza, while she and Johnny — though he's not her child's father — play house.

Written and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (the husband-and-wife duo behind "American Splendor"), and based on Eleanor Henderson's 2011 novel, the movie captures the city vibrantly, in moments of beauty and brilliance. Even a tragic scene at the start of the drama, which finds Jude splayed out in the Vermont snow, is shot in an achingly lovely way.

But Jude, our narrator, is paper thin. His most memorable qualities are his gangly frame and his bright blue eyes. The character spends most of the movie looking pained, as he takes in the overwrought events unfolding around him.

The supporting players are a different story. As Les, Hawke makes for a magnetic screen presence. He may be constantly saying inappropriate things, but there are raw emotions hiding just beneath his quips. The other adult characters also provide welcome respites from the teen drama, from Jude's mom (Julianne Nicholson), an earth mother, to Eliza's uptight ballerina mother (Emily Mortimer).

But the other great role is played by the city of New York. It may be full of crime, grime and homelessness, but it's also a place where bohemians once had the freedom to do their own thing while living (illegally) rent-free. The movie aims at realism, trying to focus on the rough qualities of the big city. When it comes to portraying the Big Apple, it works. If only these kids made as much of an impression as the gritty city that they call home.

• "Ten Thousand Saints" received two out of four stars. The film is rated R and contains drug use, including by teens, strong language and sexual references. It runs 107 minutes.