NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU (USA /Fr 2009) **
Various Directors

Following the success of PARIS, JE T’AIME, the producer Emmanuel Benbihy has brought the same film concept to the city of New York.  NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU is a collection of short vignettes, each shot in the city’s five boroughs with the common theme of finding love.

The various directors are relatively famous, mostly from different countries after making noteworthy films.  Shunji Iwai, Mira Nair, Yvan Attal are the more seasoned ones while Natalie Portman and Fatih Akin are newer to the scene.  Two segments, one by Scarlett Johansson have been edited out, which will most likely be found in the DVD version.  That one would be interesting to watch just to see how much Woody Allen has influenced his muse.

These talents bring along with them a remarkable cast that includes veterans like Julie Christie, John Hurt, Robin Wright Penn, Orlando Bloom, Shia Labeouf and Ethan Hawke among many, many others.  The last segment brings together the best acting of Cloris Leachman and Eli Wallach as a couple who rediscovers love again in their lives.

As in films based on this concept, the result is often a mixed bag of tricks with the sum of the parts better than the whole.  This is true also of NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU.  But the directors have put in their two cents worth to try to make their segment stand out from the rest. 

It is difficult to have a vignette so totally set in New York that it would not exist if reset to any other city.  The various directors have tried hard.  The last segment of a bickering old couple walking the streets and the boardwalk could have been set in L.A. just as the hotel story could have been retold in a hotel of any other big city.  It is odd to note that none of the stories featured the Statue of Liberty or what it symbolizes – freedom for the masses.

One would leave the cinema sufficiently entertained.  The eleven shorts are different enough as well as being compelling given their 10-minute duration.  Randall Balsmeyer does an all right job putting the parts together though the film lacks the feeling of functioning as a whole.  The best segment by Brett Ratner (X-MEN – THE LAST STAND) has the words screamed out aloud: “New York, I Love You!” If only the other segments shared the same exhilaration!

The film is dedicated to the late Anthony Minghella who penned on of the stories.