New York, I Love You is a 2009 romance film released in the United States on October 16, 2009. From the producer of Paris, je t'aime, it stars an ensemble cast, among them Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Anton Yelchin, Hayden Christensen, Orlando Bloom, Irrfan Khan, Rachel Bilson, Chris Cooper, Andy Garcia, Christina Ricci, Uğur Yücel, Robin Wright Penn, Julie Christie, Maggie Q, Ethan Hawke and James Caan. The film premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival in September 2008.

Plot

New York, I Love You is a collective work of eleven short films, with each segment running around 10 minutes long. Some of the actors have international status (Natalie Portman, Shia LaBeouf, Hayden Christensen, Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson, Uğur Yücel, Irrfan Khan, James Caan), with each shooting their part in one of New York's five boroughs. Similar to the previous film, Paris, je t'aime, the shorts presented together may interweave slightly, however they will all tie into the common theme of finding love. New York, I Love You is the second episode of the Cities of Love franchise created and produced by Emmanuel Benbihy.

Cast and crew

Following is the full cast and crew of ten segments of New York, I Love You with the transition part directed by Randy Balsmeyer:

Reception

Critical reaction

The film has received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 39% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 50 reviews with an average score of 6/10. Another review aggretator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating from 100 reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average score of 49% based on 23 reviews.

Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B regarding the film "takes the wrinkle-free, easy-travel concept first executed in the 2007 Gallic compilation Paris, je t'aime to a new city and styles itself..." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 stars saying in his review, "By its nature, "New York, I Love You" can't add up. It remains the sum of its parts." At the Movies critic A.O. Scott of the New York Times gave the film a mixed review claiming "Not that the 11 shorts in New York, I Love You are all that bad. It's a nice-looking city, after all, even if the interstitial skyline and traffic montages assembled by Randy Balsmeyer are about as fresh as the postcards on sale in Times Square." Lou Lumenick of the New York Post gave the film 1 star claiming "there were two additional segments that have since been cut. So you'll have to wait for the DVD to see just how bad Scarlett Johansson's directing debut is."

Erica Abeel of Hollywood Reporter writes "New York, I Love You continues the Cities of Love series that began with Paris, je t'aime far surpassing it. (...) The vignettes are tied together into a single feature through a recurrent character, a videographer who interacts with the other characters. And transitional elements -- choreographed by 11th director Randy Balsmeyer -- move the viewer from one world to another, uniting all these intimate stories into a single shimmering fabric." "With younger, less-tested directing talent, the film plays down the delineation between one director's work and another, opting to blend them through loosely interconnected characters here and there. As opposed to its directing roster, however, the cast boasts quite a few big names, all of which lend a surprising amount of authenticity to these funny, imaginative little stories," explains Heidi Patalano of Metro NY giving the film a 4 grade out of 5. Claudia Puig of USA Today explains that anthologies are by their very nature an uneven entity and adds "The multicultural emphasis - both in characters and in the unusual selection and collaboration of filmmakers and artists - is one of New York, I Love You's main assets. And there's no question that Manhattan looks ever-vibrant and beautiful."

Box office

The film grossed $1,588,015 in the United States.http

References