"New York, I Love You" Grade: B-
Unlike the gem that was “Paris, Je T’aime,” “New York, I Love You” is an inconsistent compilation of love-sparse vignettes, directed and mostly penned by several of today’s up-and-coming directors. Continuing his “Cities of Love” series, Emmanuel Benbihy’s latest film recycles the same formula used in 2006’s “Paris, Je T’aime.” Casting either underused or overrated actors, Benbihy loosely connects characters and drops them into one of the world’s largest and most charismatic cities.
The directors, among them Mira Nair (“The Namesake”), Brett Ratner (“Rush Hour”) and Natalie Portman (making her directorial debut), were given specific criteria: only 24 hours to film, a week to edit, and the short must give a sense of a certain neighborhood. Unfortunately, the time constraints fall short of showing the directors’ creativity and instead shed light on the flaws.
In director Shunji Iwai’s spot, Orlando Bloom is a musician with a serious case of writer’s block who relies on Christina Ricci’s voice to encourage him through his strict deadline. The short is easily forgettable as Bloom disappointingly fails to charm the audience and his phone companion by saying things like “wake-a-pedia” and lamenting John Lennon’s brilliance during a short visit to Strawberry Fields.
Shekhar Kapur’s segment, by far the oddest of them all, stars Julie Christie as an opera singer no longer in her prime. She checks into an elegant hotel to kill herself and in the process is intrigued by Shia LaBeouf’s handicapped, Russian bellhop. The starkness of the set and LaBeouf’s face are nice to look at. Unfortunately, the overall concept struggles to work with the film’s theme, and the late Anthony Minghella’s dialogue is a tad pretentious.
Some vignettes are enjoyable, including Mira Nair’s story of a Hasidic woman (Natalie Portman) and a Jain gem handler (Irrfan Khan) who cross cultural and racial barriers for a brief, yet sentimental moment in the Diamond District.
Surprisingly, Brett Ratner refrains from contrived dialogue and blowing buildings up during his spot about a recently dumped teenager (Anton Yelchin) who’s pressured into taking his pharmacist’s (James Caan) wheelchair-bound daughter (Olivia Thirlby) to the prom. As the night unfolds in Central Park, so does a young, comedic romance.
The most poignant short is the bittersweet story of a painter and his muse, set in Chinatown and directed by Faith Akin. Shu Qi’s subdued beauty and Ugur Yucel’s lonely artist make the melancholy, unrequited love tone work, but the short seems to be in a different league compared to the other segments, furthering the film’s inconsistency.
By the end of the movie, we are treated with the only short not set in Manhattan and the film’s sole treasure: director Joshua Marston’s sweet story of a Brighton Beach couple celebrating their 63rd anniversary on Coney Island. Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman, who play the couple to comedic perfection, bicker harmlessly yet lovingly about troubled youth and each other’s walking pace as they stroll the Coney Island boardwalk. Out of the 11 stories, it’s the only segment that truly glimpses at a New York love story.
Despite its title, halfway into “New York, I Love You,” the audience will start wondering, “Where is the New York City we all love?” In its effort to be New York’s valentine, the film forgets about the city entirely. The absence of diversity is blindingly obvious, and each director’s primary focus on relationships shifts attention away from Manhattan’s grittiness, variety of cultures and beauty. Even footage of the city’s skyline is treated as B-roll left on the cutting room floor, used as transitions between shorts in an uninspired way of “connecting” the stories and characters. Only Natalie Portman’s tale of a young girl and her nanny’s walk through Central Park addresses the city’s multiplicity by subtly touching on racial stereotypes. Otherwise, the audience is left watching white heterosexuals banter about love, completely left without anything other than the ordinary.
You can reach this writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
