New York, I Love You Reviews

Since 'Paris, je t'aime' turned out to be pretty neat, I was quite eager to check this follow-up. Well, even though New York was a great choice, to be honest, I thought the whole thing turned out to be actually rather underwhelming. First of all, I really liked the structure used in 'Paris, je t'aime' with some clear segments taking place in some specific parts of the famous city but, here, everything was mixed up and the end-result was as a result much weaker. However, the biggest problem was that, except for the segments directed by Yvan Attal, Allen Hughes and Joshua Marston which were pretty good, everything else was neither really entertaining or interesting. The best example would be the part directed by Shekhar Kapur (in fact, it was supposed to be directed by Anthony Minghella but the guy passed away just before the shooting). Indeed, it was much more ambitious than the rest of the movie, it looked really good, the acting by Julie Christie and Shia LaBeouf was fine and, yet, it felt actually rather pretentious and the whole thing just didn't work. I was also surprised that no really famous American directors such as Woody Allen or Martin Scorse who made some of their most famous movies in New York were actually involved in this project. Instead, you get some directors like Brett Rattner and still some decent directors but their link with this city was not really obvious. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I love New York, too; but I can't say the same about 'New York, I Love You', an anthology of short films -- each one a sort of "love story" -- set in New York City.

Maybe the "love story" theme is part of the problem; while I don't automatically hate all movies classified as "love stories", it's rare that I think "rom-coms" (or other romance-oriented films) are better than average.

However, it isn't JUST the romance aspect that made me not care for this one; in 'New York, I Love You', the stories aren't all about romantic love. These stories simply aren't very interesting, and don't tie together very well as a whole.

The film stars an ensemble cast, and includes a handful actors I've enjoyed in other movies (Ethan Hawke, Andy Garcia, Robin Wright, Burt Young) as well as several actors who have never done much for me (and perhaps that "prejudice" influenced my opinion -- but let's just say that I thought the story with Orlando Bloom and Christina Ricci was one of the most boring ones).

Hawke is alright, though I didn't like his character much. Mostly, I just kept wondering why Hawke's voice sounded so bizarrely different (am I the only one who noticed this? I hadn't seen him in anything prior to this for awhile, so maybe his voice has sounded different for a long time.)

There ARE a few stories here that pass the time, and I did enjoy the setting, so I'll go ahead and give the film two stars (or 4/10).

But for a better movie anthology of short stories that celebrate New York (also starring an ensemble cast), check out 'Subway Stories: Tales from the Undergroud' -- which includes a couple of weaker stories itself, but in general is much more entertaining than 'New York, I Love You'.

While the individual filmlets(?) were mildly intriguing and vaguely entertaining, the film lacked a sense of unity and seemed to have little relation from one scene to the other apart from the fact that they all took place in New York.

When I first started watching this movie I thought it was ridiculous and boring due to the fact that there are no real "connections"
howeverm after some time i fell in love with it. it is rather brilliant. and such a star-studded cast.

New York, I Love You is mostly peaks and valleys, but never less than entertaining or interesting. Since this is a collection of short films by different production teams some of them are more interesting than the others. As is to be expected, honestly. The lowest lowlight for me was the short featuring Christina Ricci, a talented actress whom I adore, in a glorified cameo trying to generate some chemistry with cardboard cutout Orlando Bloom. The surrealistic trip with Shia LeBeouf, Julie Christie and Jon Hurt was intruiging, puzzling and moving in equal measures. Cloris Leachman and Eli Wallach as a married old couple celebrating their sixty-third anniversary ranked very high on my favorites for the comedic and emotional notes it managed to strike so effortlessly. And Natalie Portman’s writing and directing debut was amusing and full of promise. As a whole I’d highly recommend giving it a try.