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BY MIRIAM RINN
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
What would happen if eleven international film directors decided to collaborate on a movie about romantic encounters in New York City? You might get a mishmash of stories set in different neighborhoods with a lot of recognizable indie actors and no uniformity of tone or theme.
That's what you get in "New York, I Love You," anyway, the second of a series of films that producer Emmanuel Benbihy calls Cities of Love. The first one was "Paris, Je T'Aime," and more are planned set in Rio, Shanghai, Jerusalem, and Mumbai. That's kind of scary, actually, if as many of the characters in those other places smoke as heavily as they do in the New York-based film. Even wealthy middle-aged men smoke.
Maybe it's because of all the action that's happening on the sidewalks outside restaurants and bars. One of the few laughs in this movie comes when a sleazy lothario played by Ethan Hawke hits on a lovely Maggie Q while they're outside a Soho bar catching a smoke. This segment is directed by Yvan Attal, an Israeli-born French director and actor ("My Wife Is an Actress").
He directs another segment as well, which begins in the same way but ends quite differently, starring Chris Cooper and Robin Wright Penn. Many of the directors hail from Asia, which may explain why in this movie the residents of New York City seem to be mostly young whites and Asians. Segments are set in Chinatown, the Diamond District, Greenwich Village, Central Park, and even the Upper East Side, but this doesn't look like Woody Allen's New York.It's dirtier and grittier, yet comfortable at the same time. It doesn't seem very American, in a strange way, but globalist, as if big cities all over the world inhabit a space separate from the countries they're found in.
The mini-stories (most take less than ten minutes) try to capture the diversity of New York life. In the contribution from Mira Nair ("Monsoon Wedding"), a young Hasidic woman who is about to be married comes to buy a diamond from an Indian merchant.
They compare the restrictions of their lifestyles-food, dress, women shaving their heads-and indulge in a kind of romantic fantasy. The actors, Natalie Portman and Irfan Khan, do their best to make their interaction believable, but the fantastical elements work more successfully than the realistic ones.
Drea De Matteo and Bradley Cooper star in the most sexually charged episode, directed by Allen Hughes. The couple meet, couple, and then are uncertain whether they'll meet again. Shekhar Kapur directs a visually beautiful segment from a script by Anthony Minghella; its quiet elegance may be due to the gorgeous Julie Christie starring as a fading opera singer. In the surreal story, she stays in an old, elegant hotel with no elevators and a crippled bellhop, played by Shia LaBeouf. None of it makes sense, but it's very pretty.
The last short stars Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman as an old, old married couple in Brighton Beach. Directed by Joshua Marston with shameless sentimentality, this is one of the most affecting segments thanks to the wonderfully human performances of the octogenarian actors.
Although the same actors pop up on screen in different segments, "New York, I Love You" never feels like a cohesive feature, and the individual pieces vary in quality. But it's romantic enough for a date, where one doesn't want too many distractions. Opens October 16 in many theaters.
