New York, I Love You

Written bySee belowProduced byEmmanuel Benbihy
Marina GrasicStarringSee belowCinematographyEdited byMusic byDistributed byVivendi Entertainment103 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBox office$9.7 million^[2]

New York, I Love You is a 2008 American romantic comedy-drama anthology film consisting of eleven short films, each by a different director. The shorts all relate in some way to the subject of love, and are set among the five boroughs of New York City. The film is a sequel of sorts to the 2006 film Paris, je t'aime, which had the same structure, and is the second installment in the Cities of Love franchise, created and produced by Emmanuel Benbihy. Unlike Paris, je t'aime, the shorts of New York, I Love You all have a unifying thread, of a videographer who films the other characters.

The film stars an ensemble cast, among them Bradley Cooper, Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Anton Yelchin, Hayden Christensen, Orlando Bloom, Irrfan Khan, Rachel Bilson, Chris Cooper, Andy García, Christina Ricci, John Hurt, Cloris Leachman, Robin Wright, Julie Christie, Maggie Q, Ethan Hawke, James Caan, Shu Qi, and Eli Wallach.

New York, I Love You premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival in September 2008, and was released in the United States on October 16, 2009. While the TIFF premiere of the film featured 14 novellas, distributors later decided to cut two of them: Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut "These Vagabond Shoes" and Andrei Zvyagintsev's novella "Apocrypha". The decision was taken after a focus screening in New York, where these two shorts were met with unfavorable reactions.^[3]

Cast and crew

Following is the cast and crew of ten segments of New York, I Love You with the transition segment directed by Randy Balsmeyer:^[4]

Segment	Director	Writer	Actors
1	Jiang Wen	Hu Hong & Meng Yao Adaptation: Israel Horovitz	Hayden Christensen as Ben Andy García as Garry Rachel Bilson as Molly
2	Mira Nair	Suketu Mehta	Natalie Portman as Rifka Malone Irrfan Khan as Mansuhkhbai
3	Shunji Iwai	Adaptation: Israel Horovitz	Orlando Bloom as David Cooler Christina Ricci as Camille
4	Yvan Attal	Olivier Lecot	Maggie Q as Janice Taylor Ethan Hawke as Writer Chris Cooper as Alex Robin Wright Penn as Anna
5	Brett Ratner	Jeff Nathanson	Anton Yelchin as Boy James Caan as Mr. Riccoli Olivia Thirlby as Actress Blake Lively as Gabrielle DiMarco
6	Allen Hughes	Xan Cassavetes & Stephen Winter	Bradley Cooper as Gus Drea de Matteo as Lydia
7	Shekhar Kapur	Anthony Minghella	Julie Christie as Isabelle John Hurt as Bellhop Shia LaBeouf as Jacob
8	Natalie Portman	Natalie Portman	Taylor Geare as Teya Carlos Acosta as Dante Jacinda Barrett as Maggie
9	Fatih Akın	Fatih Akın	Uğur Yücel as Painter Shu Qi as Chinese herbalist Burt Young as Landlord
10	Joshua Marston	Joshua Marston	Eli Wallach as Abe Cloris Leachman as Mitzie
transitions	Randy Balsmeyer	Hall Powell, Israel Horovitz & James Strouse	Emilie Ohana as Zoe, the Video Artist Eva Amurri as Sarah Justin Bartha as Justin

Release

The film grossed $1,588,087 in the United States, and $8,136,973 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $9,725,060.^[2][5]

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 37% approval rating based on 100 reviews, with an average rating of 5.10/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Like many anthologies, New York, I Love You has problems of consistency, but it isn't without its moments".^[6] On Metacritic it holds a score of 49 out of 100, based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[7]

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..."^[8] 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."^[9] 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."^[10]

Erica Abeel of The 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.^[11]

Heidi Patalano of Metro New York gives the film a 4 grade out of 5.

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.^[12]

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.^[13]

In popular culture

An episode of the Netflix series Master of None is named and structured after New York, I Love You.^[14] Like the film, the episode follows the intersecting lives of various New Yorkers, although the episode's stories are not exclusively about romance.

The series finale of the American show Gossip Girl was titled "New York, I Love You XOXO" based on the film's title.

References

External links

• New York, I Love You at IMDb
• New York, I Love You at AllMovie
• New York, I Love You at Box Office Mojo
• New York, I Love You at Rotten Tomatoes
• New York, I Love You at Metacritic
• Cities of Love franchise website