New York, I Love You

New York, I Love You is the third film in the series of city-praising movies-within-a-movie, following Paris, Je T'aime (2006) and Tokyo! (2008). Created by eleven directors, New York, I Love You features eleven vignettes brought to life by a star-studded cast, including Natalie Portman, Orlando Bloom, Christina Ricci, Bradley Cooper, Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Ethan Hawke, Robin Wright Penn, John Hurt, Andy Garcia, James Caan, Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie, Cloris Leachman, Eli Wallach, and even a cameo by Blake Lively.

Unlike Paris, Je T'aime, which featured twenty five-minute scenes of Paris's neighborhoods, most of the character of New York, I Love You interweave into one another's stories. Often, the dialogue is stilted and unnatural, and the vignettes tend to lack a sense of plot or movement. Many of the story arcs feature O. Henry-like moments and surprise realizations at their ends, hammering home the point that things are not always as they seem in New York City.

More than anything, New York, I Love You loves boho yuppies. It shows a preponderance of twenty- or thirty-something heterosexual Anglo-Saxon couples, smoking cigarettes and flirting outside trendy bars in Soho or the West Village, all the while commenting on how their chance encounters are so meaningful and so New York. The film trips over itself spouting these platitudes: New York is the center of the universe! everyone in New York came from somewhere else! it's so exciting and sexy to meet complete strangers! The focus is stifling.

New York, I Love You misses so many delicious opportunities to depict the city that never sleeps. The film stars no blacks or homosexuals, and almost entirely ignores Hispanics, Asians, children, teens and seniors. There are no stories of homeless people, runaway teens, bartenders, actors, businessmen, trophy wives, teachers, professors, garbage collectors, cab drivers, policemen, subway conductors, mobsters or even tourists. The film is too safe: gangs, drugs, theft, rape, poverty and disease are all omitted. Only one argument in a cab is shown, and it's completely innocuous. Furthermore, for as much as the film praises New York, the city is the setting, not the star. The film ventures out of Manhattan only once! What of the other four boroughs that make up New York City? Even within Manhattan, what of Little Italy, the Financial District, Chelsea, Midtown, Harlem or Inwood? They are ignored completely.

The film succeeds when it doesn't try to depict the entire city in one vignette, but instead focuses on specifically portraying little bits and pieces of New York that we've all seen, and that are essential to its multifaceted face. The ethnic "manny" (male nanny) and his tiny blonde-haired, blue-eyed charge romping through Central Park; the Hasidic Jewish neighborhood; the quarreling old married couple who take forever to cross the street and who swear at hoodlums on skateboards: these are characters who create the city every day (and whom New York, I Love You portrays very well.) They are the real New York.

Ultimately, New York, I Love You is caught up in the idea of New York City, not in the reality of the city itself. A bolder film, one that truly examined New York without omitting its faults, annoyances and dangers, would also have room to truly show New York's joys, inspirations and millions of love stories. New York City is about so much more than sex with pretty strangers, and filmmakers would be wise to realize it.

New York, I Love You opened in limited release on October 16, 2009.