This New York is Easy to Love
Somewhere in the Upper East Side a famous guest (Julie Christie) and a strangely attentive bellboy (Shia LaBeouf) meet. Over in Chinatown, a driven artist (Ugur Yücel) becomes enchanted with a quiet herbalist (Shu Qi) he longs to paint. While making a slow trek to a waterfront boardwalk, a cantankerous elderly couple (Eli Wallach, Cloris Leachman) bicker with a loving passion that has lasted decades. In an empty bar, a con artist (Hayden Christensen) spies the woman of his dreams (Rachel Bilson) only to realize she’s the girlfriend of a recent mark (Andy Garcia). A Hasidic Jew (Natalie Portman) on the eve of her wedding briefly wonders if a fellow diamond merchant (Irrfan Khan) is the man of her dreams.
Christina Ricci and Orlando Bloom in Vivendi Entertainment's New York, I Love You
Coming on the heels of the acclaimed anthology film Paris Je T’Aime, these are just a handful of the stories of love, loss and relationships that make up the bulk of New York, I Love You, the second episode of the “Cities of Love” series conceived by producer Emmanuel Benbihy. With interconnected shorts directed by Jiang Wen (Devils on the Doorstep), Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding), Shunji Iwai (All About Lily Chou-Chou), Yvan Attal (My Wife is an Actress), Brett Ratner (Rush Hour), Allen Hughes (From Hell), Shekhar Khapur (Elizabeth), actress Natalie Portman, Fatih Akin (The Edge of Heaven) and Joshua Marston (Maria Full of Grace) like its predecessor the movie is a fascinating spectacle, and while some segments work better than others as a collective whole they remain captivating.
It must be said the transitions from one story to the next are fantastic. Handled by noted Hollywood title designer Randall Balsmeyer (A Serious Man, Notes on a Scandal), things overlap blissfully, the narratives seamlessly interconnecting almost invisibly. If a person didn’t know any better they might think this was a single Crash-like narrative and not a series of shorts, each piece of the puzzle so on-theme they work together like clockwork.
And what is that theme? New York, of course, the way it affects the loves and lives of its citizens the thing that drives all of the narratives forward. It is the main and most important character, each vignette giving an insight into the Big Apple most other features set there can only dream of achieving. The city comes alive in all its glory, and even though I’d never in a million years want to leave Seattle after watching the movie I almost wanted to hop on a plane and get my own apartment there that very instant.
As for the shorts themselves, my favorite was probably Nair’s diamond merchant saga with Portman and Khan, although the actress’ own directorial effort concerning a caring father (Carlos Acosta) doting on his young daughter (Taylor Geare) while the world around them thinks he’s her masculine nanny is also strong. I also quite enjoyed Kapur’s bit with Christie, LaBeouf and a heartbreaking John Hurt, the final scene of that one stopping my breath cold. Surprisingly, Ratner’s prom night farce with Olivia Thirlby, Anton Yelchin, James Caan and Blake Lively is also rather sublime, and even though it’s predictably juvenile the climax had me literally laughing out loud.
Even the ones I didn’t particularly care for still had moments I adored (although reuniting Jumper stars Christensen and Bilson wasn’t the greatest idea in the world), each short having a reason for being speaking to love’s universal spell everyone longs for yet virtually no one understands. It’s hard to imagine any of the shorts being replaced by something else, and even when one left me exasperated (thank you Allen Hughes) the bit still served a greater purpose I could easily stand behind.
New York, I Love You didn’t change my world and I doubt I would have seen it had I not needed to write this review. Anthology films seldom do all that much for me, and even as good as Paris Je T’Aime was I can’t say I’ve ever returned to it for another viewing. But for people who do like these sorts of things or for those longing for something a little different this movie is worth searching out. With the talent on display on both sides of the camera there is always something to look at, the emotions driving it strong enough to make all reservations disappear like east coast snow evaporating at the faintest hint of Spring.
Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)
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