Paris may be the city for lovers, but New York has a je ne sais quoi that can't be beat. Based on the French film "Paris, Je T'aime" (2006), "New York, I Love You" paints a gritty and often witty picture of the ups and downs of love in New York City. With its myriad of quirky, bittersweet love stories featuring a star-studded cast, "New York, I Love You" is the perfect feel-good movie for romantics and city dwellers.
From "Paris, je t'aime" creators Emmanuel Benbihy and Tristan Carné, "New York, I Love You" isn't a typical Hollywood movie. As an anthology film, a group of notable directors — Shekhar Kapur ("Elizabeth," 1998), Brett Ratner ("Rush Hour," 1998) and Mira Nair ("The Namesake," 2006), to name a few — each directed their own vignettes showing the different forms that love can take with an eclectic group of New Yorkers.
Unlike the picturesque architecture and dreamy feel emphasized in "Paris," the directors of "New York, I Love You" highlight the more edgy, fast-paced New York lifestyle. The film opens with choppy, grainy images of the Brooklyn Bridge, cabs stuck in traffic on Manhattan streets and crowds of people walking like they've got somewhere more important to be. While most films — and clueless tourists — romanticize New York as the home of Times Square and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961), true New Yorkers will appreciate how "New York, I Love You" embraces the rawness, attitude and unpredictability of the city.
While the storylines stand as their own separate snapshots of New Yorkers dabbling in love, many of the characters cross paths throughout the movie, making the film a bit more complex than its French counterpart. Unlike "Paris, je t'aime" where one vignette is abruptly followed by the next, Benbihy and Carné thoughtfully create short, necessary transitions between scenes in "New York, I Love You."
Showing strangers exchanging a few words at a café or accidentally getting into the same cab effortlessly ties seemingly unrelated tales of love together. These chance encounters also capture the big-but-small essence of New York City, proving that six degrees of separation isn't just a game about Kevin Bacon.
Although a few of the vignettes seem a tad too trite or extreme in their portrayals of love, their underlying themes are still believable. The cliché NYU college student (Rachel Bilson) meets her married professor and lover (Andy Garcia) at a bar in the Village, but this pairing is then juxtaposed by the more unusual tale of an Indian jeweler (Irrfan Khan) in Midtown dealing more than diamonds to a soon-to-be married Orthodox Jewish woman (Natalie Portman). At first, stories like the latter appear far-fetched, but that doesn't make them any less relatable. The audience can empathize with unusual characters because their emotions are universal even if their circumstances are not.
Fortunately, "New York, I Love You" also doesn't expect the mere popularity of its all-star cast to carry the weight of the stories. Though well-known faces frequent the film, the various plots are strong enough that audiences aren't drooling over celebrities instead of actually paying attention to the stories.
To be fair, "New York, I Love You" has its share of famous actors: Ethan Hawke, Natalie Portman, Shia LaBeouf, Bradley Cooper, Hayden Christensen, Andy Garcia, Orlando Bloom, Christina Ricci and Rachel Bilson are a few examples. For the most part, the film's directors do a notable job of keeping the artistry of their vignettes up to par with these celebrity powerhouses.
One of the more heartwarming stories is director Joshua Marston's endearing portrayal of love between bickering elderly couple Abe and Mitzie (Brooklyn native Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman, respectively) as they slowly take a trip to Coney Island for their 63rd wedding anniversary. As Mitzie continually lectures Abe about "lifting his feet" like the doctor told him to, the pair shuffles down to the ocean by the Coney Island boardwalk. In the end, watching the two of them lovingly banter their way to the Brooklyn shore leaves audiences with a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.
Ultimately, "New York, I Love You" skillfully captures the complexities of love in a city full of raw passion and unique individuals. With some of its more unconventional portrayals of love and its all-star cast, "New York, I Love You" is bound to leave audiences eagerly searching for love in unlikely places.
