Lovely Time In New York

New York, I Love You

From the creators behind the Paris Je T’aime comes the second film in the “love series”. Similar to Paris Je T’aime, New York, I Love You features numerous vignettes on the subject of love from 12 directors from around the world. These directors include: Mira Nair, Allen Hughes, Shekhar Kapur, Natalie Portman, Brett Ratner, and Scarlett Johansson just to name a few. The film also features an all star cast with the likes of: Julie Christie, Orlando Bloom, Natalie Portman, Shia LaBeouf, Ethan Hawke, Andy Garcia, Maggie Q, Chris Cooper, Justin Bartha, Robin Wright Penn, Blake Lively, Christina Ricci, John Hurt, Bradley Cooper, Anton Yelchin, Jame Caan, Kevin Bacon, Hayden Christensen, etc.

Personally I found the majority of the shorts hit the mark. There were five or so in particular that were blisteringly funny. One of my favourite vingnettes included, surprising enough, Brett Ratner’s segment with Anton Yelchin. Yelton plays a boy who is stuck taking a girl (Olivia Thrilby) in a wheelchair to the prom. Yelchin and Thrilby give great performance that are sure to have you laughing hard by time you reach the end. Some other standout segments include Mira Nair’s short with Natalie Portman, Yvan Attal’s with Ethan Hawke and Maggie Q, and Shekhar Kapur's with Shia LaBeouf and Julie Christie.

To be honest only a few segments really fizzle out. The weakest one being Scarlett Johansson’s Coney Island segment which stars Kevin Bacon. I have read recently that this segment has been left out of the latest version of the film (I saw the version screened at TIFF 08). Word is it will be on the dvd edition of the film. Which is fitting when you really think about it, the short is not bad but it does not fit with the overall production. It really does slow down the pacing of the film. New York, I Love You is another enjoyable installment in the growing love series. I am looking forward to seeing what the next two installments, set in Jerusalem and Singapore respectively, will bring.