Why you can trust 12DOVE Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.
New York, I Love You review - Having wheeled out the big (directorial) guns for Paris, Je T’Aime, producer Emmanuel Benbihy calls on the B-team for this New York-based continuation of his ‘Cities Of Love’ franchise.
Indeed, the only significant hold-over from that 2006 effort is Natalie Portman, here contributing both behind and in front of the camera to a compilation of shorts united only by location and theme.
The reasoning behind the portmanteau film – if you don’t like the piece you’re watching there’ll be another one along shortly – is perfectly sound. But it does presume some quality variation, something rendered moot by New York’s unremitting blandness.
With the exception of Shekhar Kapur’s offering – a dreamlike fable written by Anthony Minghella and featuring Shia LaBeouf as a crippled bellhop tending to a suicidal Julie Christie – the different segments feel safe.
It says something when the pick of the bunch – Anton Yelchin’s saucy prom-night romp with Olivia Thirlby, who isn’t quite as she first appears to be – is directed by that most celebrated of auteurs Brett Ratner.
That section, like many others, revolves around some form of deception, dissembling or pretence, a tactic that becomes less surprising the more it’s reprised.
In fact you can pretty much depend on no-one being who they seem, be they the apparent victim of pickpocket Hayden Christensen (Andy Garcia), the middle-aged diner chatting with Robin Wright on the sidewalk (Chris Cooper) or the statuesque beauty Ethan Hawke attempts to pick up (Maggie Q).
It’s certainly a starry affair, something that might be a draw in itself to those who relish the thought of seeing Portman as an Orthodox Jewish bride or Orlando Bloom as a musician.
In truth, alas, it’s the film itself that’s short of ideas.
