New York, I Love You

Stars: Julie Christie, Shia La Beouf, Natalie Portman, Ethan Hawke, John Hurt, Cloris Leachman, Eli Wallach, Bradley Cooper, Andy Garcia, Christina Ricci, Orlando Bloom, Emilie Ohana, Rachel Bilson, Hayden Christensen, James Caan, Robin Wright Penn, Chris Cooper, Blake Lively, Justin Bartha, Anton Yelchin, Maggie Q

Director: Various

The second in the series that began with Paris, Je t'Aime, this again consists of numerous slight and too-short anecdotes, each of which concludes before even the most basic of developments can ensue.

Occasionally, characters reappear in different episodes, but to little purpose, for there is no running thread.

A later episode, with Leachman and Wallach as old codgers visiting the beach, is more tolerable than most of the rest, which is largely devoid of interest. A sketch written by Anthony Minghella (to whom the film is dedicated) provides a brief showcase for the mature talents of Christie (as an ex-singer apparently contemplating suicide) as well as La Beouf and Hurt. It does bring a welcome note of strangeness to the banality of the rest, but is really too baffling for its own good. It would be nice to know what's going on in this one, but presumably Minghella took the secret to his grave.

A further sheaf of stories based in Shanghai is promised at the end but, since, this one has been on the shelf for more than two years, it might be quite a wait.

David Quinlan

USA 2008. UK Distributor: The Works. Technicolor/Colour by DuArt.
103 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 02 Feb 2011