Love and the city
Indie ensemble romance is flawed but nonetheless satisfying
By Erik Hayden 11/05/2009
New York, I Love You
Directed by Fatih Akin, Yvan Atta, Natalie Portman and others.
Starring: Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, Shia LaBeouf, Bradley Cooper, Blake Lively, Chris Cooper, Orlando Bloom.
Rated R for language and sexual content.
1 hr. 43 min.
Paris Je T’aime, the 2006 indie word-of-mouth sensation, was a blissfully romantic and experimental little film that took viewers through the streets of Paris in search of love.
Although the film was constructed from short pieces shot entirely differently from each other (the product of multiple directors and characters), each sequence segued smoothly into the next, forming a coherent whole. It became more than just a series of shorts about love in any form — it was a euphoric tribute to Paris, the reality and the ideal.
Success quickly brings a sequel, and the obvious choice was New York. It’s the American city that, despite any hardship, scandal or disaster, has always retained its sterling reputation as a place where “anything can happen.” Replicating the formula used in Paris Je T’aime, the sequel brought on board multiple directors (including Natalie Portman, Fatih Akin, Brett Ratner) to helm a series of interconnected short films showcasing love, lust, romance and heartbreak in the Big Apple.
An impressive ensemble of budding young stars (including Shia LaBeouf, Bradley Cooper, Blake Lively, Orlando Bloom, Hayden Christensen and Rachel Bilson) and veteran presences (Chris Cooper, Ethan Hawke, Andy Garcia and Christina Ricci) made New York, I Love You an interesting proposition. Would it be a brilliant, quirky indie romance riffing on the (admittedly amorphous, but always appealing) theme of “Love in the City”? Or would it be a post-Woody Allen retread, sinking under the weight of its own bloated pretensions?
The answer is neither or, perhaps, both. I Love You glides through NY’s many landmarks and inhabitants, while never really pausing to understand why they’re there or what makes them tick. From Central Park to Coney Island, struggling musicians, wayward teens, pickpockets, lonely cab drivers, elderly couples and horny (but sensitive) dive bar patrons all look for a little love in the city.
The result, especially if the characters were played as clichés, could have been spectacularly banal. But the film has so many intriguing moments that keep it afloat and capture the essence of these diverse characters — even if it’s only for an instant. A pickpocket nabs the wallet of a wealthy bar owner, then gets heisted himself by the same man. A high school senior gets dumped by his girlfriend, is cajoled into taking a wheelchair-bound girl to prom, then realizes it’s the best night of his life.
The film thrives (maybe too much) on subverting many of these clichés. Every short, it seems, has added some twist to it (most notably in one high school prom night sequence) that suggests some depth to the thinly sketched characters.
In fact, one of the larger problems of the film is that many quickly endearing characters disappear completely after their main sequence. Eli Wallach’s shuffle-footed senior citizen provided a fresh bookend to the film, but he could have been used as a comedic presence throughout it. Likewise with Chris Cooper’s cynical, wisecracking businessman and Bradley Cooper’s (The Hangover) bumbling bar hopper.
Part of the fun in Paris Je T’aime was that these characters would do cameos in the other short films. It lent the film believability, as if these disparate Parisians and colorful neighborhoods really did exist in the same city. New York, it seems, is content to allow a simple gesture or suggestion to convey past histories and future possibilities (perhaps due to the conflicting shooting schedules of its A-list stars). Then it skips off to a different world, only a few blocks away, to tell a new story.
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