New York, I Love You

New York, I Love You

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Customer Reviews

Very Well Done

Reviewed by Haruki Maven, 2010-02-28

I would like to point out that the editorial review provided for this page is not valid until it can get its facts straight. That aside:

This movie was very well done, and less disjointed than its sister film "Paris, Je'taime." That is, the stories seem to flow together a little bit more seamlessly, and they are more accessible on a personal level.

If the only justification provided for the one star reviews is "boring" then I would have to suggest the logical decision and at least give it a try.

Too many cooks, spoil the broth

Reviewed by Amit, 2010-02-28

New York, I love you is not really a move but a quilt of different short films which attempt a common theme. It brings many characters to the movie but has no depth at all. Some big name directors contribute such as Yvan Attal, Allen Hughes, Shunji Awai, Wen Jiang, Mira Nair, Joshua Marston, Brett Ratner, Natalie Portman (her directorial debut), Shekhar Kapur, Fatih Akin, and Randall Balsmeyer along with many big names Natalie Portman, Andy Garcia, Bradley Cooper, James Caan, Ethan Hawke, Julie Christie, Hayden Christensen, Orlando Bloom, Christina Ricci, Robin Wright Penn, Chris Cooper, Rachel Bilson, Eli Wallach, Cloris Leachman, John Hurt and Drea DeMatteo.
I only watched this movie because I was curious of the premise which was, the directors chosen were given only 24 hours to shoot, a week to edit.

The best episode was directed by Joshua Marsten with Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman, an old couple on their way for lunch in Coney Island. Their interaction and the love they show for each other after 63 years of marriage was perhaps the best scene in the movie or for that matter in recent movie memory. If you are interested to see the result of having so many directors and actors contributing, watch this movie but don't expect any satisfaction from the story. I give it two and half stars.2/27/10

A Moody, All-Star Anthology Serves as a Valentine to a Fictionalized New York

Reviewed by Ed Uyeshima, 2010-02-16

A dozen stories. Ten filmmakers. 103 minutes. If you do the math, you will draw the same conclusion I did - that there isn't much time for a viewer to make an emotional connection with every episode presented in this all-star 2009 omnibus tribute to New York. An eclectic group of global filmmakers, some well-known, others on the verge, had to meet certain requirements to make the final cut - they were given only 24 hours to shoot, a week to edit, and the result had to reflect a strong sense of a particular NYC neighborhood. The cumulative effect makes for a moody portrait of the city through various couplings, but due to the contrivance of its structure, the film falls short in bringing a deeper emotional resonance to the themes the creators want to convey.

With a couple of key exceptions, the film appears to be more of a valentine to Lower Manhattan. Consequently, there is a fashionably edgy look to the short stories. Israeli-born French director Yvan Attal epitomizes this feeling in two episodes. The first deals with an aggressively talkative writer (an irritating Ethan Hawke) throwing a barrage of romantic and sexual overtures at a sleek Asian woman who appears to have heard it all (Maggie Q). The other is marginally better, focusing on a chance conversation outside a restaurant between a woman taking a cigarette break (an effortlessly sexy Robin Wright Penn) and a man intrigued by her emotional availability (Chris Cooper). Both have O. Henry-type twist endings that make them ultimately entertaining.

A couple of other entries feel more gimmicky by comparison. Brett Ratner's mostly comic entry features Anton Yelchin as a naïve high-school student and Olivia Thirlby as his unexpected prom date with James Caan as her pushy pharmacist father. Mira Nair directed a flat culture-clash encounter between two savvy souls - a Hassid woman about to marry (Natalie Portman) and a Jain diamond dealer (Irrfan Khan) - who become mutually intrigued by their price negotiation meeting. Other episodes feel even more cursory. Portman wrote and directed a brief episode focused on an ebullient toddler (Taylor Geare) and her father (Carlos Acosta) having a play date in Central Park, highlighted by a brief dance performance from Acosta at the end (he is a Cuban-born principal dancer for the Royal Ballet). Chinese director Jiang Wen led Hayden Christensen, Andy Garcia and Rachel Bilson on an empty roundelay of deception and humiliation among thieves at a bar.

Japanese director Shunji Iwai was at the helm of a slight episode featuring Orlando Bloom as a frantic musician working against deadline, while Turkish director Faith Akin shares a brief story of obsession with Uður Yücel as a solitary artist who wants to paint the face of a local Chinese herbalist (Shu Qi). The entry from Allen Hughes (of the Hughes Brothers) consists mostly of a continuing voiceover of two regretful lovers (Bradley Cooper, Drea de Matteo) hesitant to follow up on their passionate one-night stand. The oddest, most dispiriting entry comes from Shekhar Kapur who directed a script from the late Anthony Minghella (to whom the film is dedicated). It stars Julie Christie as a renowned opera singer returning to a posh Fifth Avenue hotel where she bonds with a palsied, Slovak-accented bellboy played by an overly sensitive Shia LaBeouf. The nature of their relationship is never really divulged, but it ends on a surreal note of little consequence.

Directed and written by Joshua Marston, the best episode is perhaps the least ambitious as it features Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman as an aged, bickering couple on their way to the boardwalk in Coney Island for their 63rd anniversary. The reassuring way she places her head on his shoulder is easily the most touching moment in the film. All in all, this stylish hodgepodge will appeal mostly to those who are drawn to the short story format. Benoît Debie's sharp cinematography at least brings a consistent sheen to the film as it tethers the various storylines to a New York that feels mired in a cinematic fantasy. I just think Woody Allen's "Manhattan" executes on the same approach far more effectively. The extras on the 2010 DVD include a handful of additional scenes (though not the two deleted segments directed by Scarlett Johansson and Andrei Zvyagintsev), interviews with five of the directors and the original theatrical trailer.

Don't Waste Your Time or Money!!

Reviewed by Alicia M. Justus, 2010-02-16

Dumbest movie I have watched in a long time. There was no plot, no storyline, too bad all these great actors agreed to this horrible film.

They DON'T

Reviewed by Biffy, 2010-02-15

I was born in NYC, and I live in CA because the weather got too rough for me. I miss NY so much that I am always looking for a good opportunity to see movies about the city. I hated this picture! I could not continue watching, not only because the vocabulary was limited to the characters using curse words to express themselves, but as much I watched, the dialog was puzzling, the people lustful, and I didn't want to waste my time, and submit my ears to fowl language to see how things turned out. I saw no love for NYC! New York, I Love You