New York, I Love You


Starring: Bradley Cooper, Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Ethan Hawke, Blake Lively, Christina Ricci, Orlando Bloom, Robin Wright Penn, Hayden Christiansen, Rachel Bilson, Chris Cooper, Justin Bartha, Anton Yelchin, John Hurt, James Caan, Maggie Q, Andy Garcia, Cloris Leachman, Eli Wallach, Julie Christie, Jacinda Barrett
Directed by: Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Allen Hughes, Shunji Iwai, Wen Jiang, Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Brett Ratner, Randall Balsmeyer, Shekhar Kapur, Natalie Portman
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Romance
2009

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Ten different stories are told about love and romance in New York City.

Review:

Tim: New York, I Love You is a companion piece to 2006's Paris je t'aime. Like that movie, this is an anthology of different stories, all based around love and romance in perhaps the greatest city on the planet. They are loosely connected, but mostly exist by themselves. Like its companion piece, this movie contains some ups and downs- certain stories are remarkable, touching, and entertaining. Others are boring and ineffective. The problem is as you might expect- the great stories aren't given enough time, and we waste too much time on the weaker stories. Like Paris je t'aime, this movie ultimately is weaker than the sum of its parts. I didn't really like this movie, but I certainly respected the different approach. Plus, I love the idea of this companion movie riffing on the previous one, centered in France.

The cast is again quite impressive, although they don't all make a great impact on the film. I won't mention the entire cast, but I did want to touch on certain key players. Bradley Cooper's presence was welcome, but he never made much of an impact on this film. Natalie Portman stars in one section and directs another. Her on-screen story was one of the weakest points of the entire film. I was bored out of my mind during her sequence, and as it comes very early on, gets the movie off to a terribly weak start. Ethan Hawke has some great dialogue, and I enjoyed his story- mostly because of his performance. He was one of the few actors who actually had something of real substance to work with, and he makes great use of it. Orlando Bloom and Christina Ricci had one of the more interesting stories, but it felt far too short- it almost ended before it began. Robin Wright Penn and Chris Cooper have a very different paced story, but it is one of the more powerful and memorable ones. I absolutely loved the Shia LaBeouf story. I don't believe I fully understand it at all, but it was perhaps the most beautiful and haunting story of the whole bunch. He worked very well with Julie Christie, and their story, directed by Shekhar Kapur is a contender for my favorite. The other contender for best story is the one with Anton Yelchin and James Caan. I was shocked at what a touching, surprising, beautiful little story this was. Yelchin gives a terrific performance, and I was just a huge fan of this entire story. Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, and Andy Garcia were fine, but their story felt like a bit of a throwaway.

As you can see, the strength and the challenge of this film is that you have all these individual stories. The great ones raise the film up, but the weak ones pull it down. This gives the movie the impression that it is fighting against itself. New York, I Love You definitely has some excellent moments. Certain stories were about as emotional and powerful as you could ever hope to see on screen. Others, sadly, did not work at all. For this reason, this movie isn't as good as it should have been. While I was somewhat disappointed, I still enjoyed the movie. It is certainly different, and although I doubt I will love future City of Love movies, I am very interested to see what other cities come up.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Paris je t'aime