New York, I Love You

An American take on Paris, je t'aime, in which several shorts tell the tales of lovers within New York City.

My interest in this film was mild, it boasted a large cast and several directors, but I was more interested in Paris, je t'aime. New York, I Love You comes off as a poor attempt at trying to show talent and style. The film is good, but not as good as it should, or wants to be. I found it to be very uneven with each short and I truly liked only one of them.

Instead of going into each short, beat by beat, I'll highlight the ones I care enough to talk about, for better or worse. We start off with Bradley Cooper and Justin Bartha, each getting into a cab and having a small argument over which street to take. This is our introduction to this film, it's interesting and mildly funny, but offers us no insight into either character or their situation. We go on through other shorts, involving a bald Natalie Portman and lazy boy Orlando Bloom. I found that a lot of the shorts had characters that I just didn't have interest in. For a short, one of the main objectives is to grab the viewer's attention with either a character or situation, many of these shorts fail to do this.

The one short that I absolutely loved, is also the most basic one. Two people who are in love walk down the street together. Cloris Leachman and Eli Wallach are perfect and in their old age outshine everyone else in this piece. Their short is soft and heartfelt. The only true love story in this whole piece. While other pieces were interesting and entertaining (Maggie Q and Ethan Hawke) none had the presence of Leachman and Wallach.

As mentioned before, some shorts are uneven and try to pull small twists here and there. Most of them are obvious (Ratner's piece & Cooper/Wright Penn) but I give them credit for trying. Everyone does a decent job in their roles, as I mentioned, this is a pretty big cast. Shia LaBeouf stars in the oddest segment of them all, along with the beautiful Julie Christie. It'll have some people scratching their heads, as it seems to be the odd one out of the group.

One big problem is that the film doesn't showcase New York enough, it should almost be a third character, but instead it's simply the backdrop. The film suffers from the lack of ethnicity that should be present. This is New York after all, but instead we get the beautiful cast, it doesn't feel real.

The film is pretty much hit or miss and nothing jumps out at you as a wow moment. Each segment is directed well, but nothing memorable. I read each segment was given a short amount of time to film everything, that has its pros and cons. Why not take more time to craft everything?

The great thing about 'Paris, je t'aime' was the diversity of the shorts that went to making up the film; first you'd have a drama then a comedy then a thriller, each director had their own unique style and if there was one you didn't like it didn't matter as it was soon on to the next one, unfortunately this doesn't happen in 'New York, I Love You' the same concept applied to another major city. Here the shorts are loosely tied together by reoccurring characters from the stories which may have been done on purpose for the flow but it does make the distinction between them hard. Considering that New York is such a diverse city it is surprising that it isn't explored more here and a lot of the shorts fall into the same kind of categories. My only real criticism with the film is for something that's called 'New York, I Love You' it's all just so depressing each tale has an element of real sadness to it, which is not necessarily a bad thing, it gives the film depth but just don't go excepting to leave uplifted. My favourite was the piece written by the late Anthony Minghella which was not only moving but proved something I never thought I'd see Shia LaBeouf actually acting. So overall it's a mixed bag worth seeing but nowhere near as good as its Paris counterpart.

This is an amalgamation of twelve short films about the way life in New York City.

"New York, I Love You" is a collection of short films directed by twelve people, fused together without introduction or gaps. As a result, stories jump from one place to another incoherently. Some shorts are interesting and entertaining, like the one about a thief in the café. Some shorts are technically well made, like the one in the bright hotel room (but the contents of which is incomprehensible). Some of the shorts are quite boring and even pointless, such as the one involving the works of the Russian literary giant.

I say "New York, I Love You" is misleadingly titled because most shorts are not about love, the only one that is really about love is the one with the elderly couple. Most other shorts are about brief flirtatious encounters or carnal attraction. In addition, all the shorts are not location specific. They could have been set in any city in the world without affecting the storyline. I do not see any scene that strikes me as "This is so New York" or "This can only happen in New York".

In summary, "New York, I Love You" lacks coherence and engaging themes. Despite the great ensemble cast, the result is disappointing.

10 stories cramped together in 110 mins. The result can be guessed - each story not getting enough time. Moreover, the characters don't have the required depth or layers. Having such a star-studded cast, the movie doesn't have any impact and doesn't show much of cultural diversity, chaos, etc...

The movie is no comparison to 'Paris Je 'taime'. But, since New York is a city close to my heart, it made a pleasant watch for me.

My favourite story out of the 10 was the one with the high school prom. The story was different and amusing. Second was the one with the growing apart couple.

New York, I Love You is a collective work of eleven short films, with each segment running around 10 minutes long. The shorts don't exactly relate but they all have something in common, love. Every short is about finding love, either if it's about a couple or just two strangers chitchatting.The film stars an ensemble cast, among them Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Orlando Bloom, Chris Cooper, Andy Garcia, Christina Ricci, Irrfan Khan, Robin Wright Penn, Julie Christie, Ethan Hawke, Bradley Cooper, Rachel Bilson, and Anton Yelchin. With such a stellar cast and such an interesting premise, I was expecting a tremendous film; the problem is New York I Love You doesn't add up. It remains the sum of its parts. Some of the segments are funny, original and interesting but others are so meaningless (Orlando Bloom/Christina Ricci and Ethan Hawke/Maggie Q segments) that it's appalling. The film is definitely uneven and has a very experimental tone. Story-wise, it seems like something a few film students could put together. Having said that, the film has some great moments as well, one of the best being the segment about an old couple, played by Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman, walking along in Brooklyn on their 67th wedding anniversary. And it's moments like this, that made me as a viewer, wish the film was more consistent, because, there's a lot of potential here. But, as unsatisfying as the overall story ends up being, for me, the cinematography and soundtrack saved the all thing. The editing was perfect, the way the film was shot was very impressive and the ethereal soundtrack, couldn't be more fitting. In the end, New York I Love You feels like an experimental film, and as in most experiences there's highs and lows. It's how one looks at the film as a whole that will determine if he enjoys it or not. It might be worthwhile for some and a waste of time for others.

7/10