Product Details

• Actors: Natalie Portman, Blake Lively, Shia LaBoeuf, Bradley Cooper, Ethan Hawke
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Vivendi Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: February 2, 2010
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00305GYFC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,751 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "New York, I Love You" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

New York, I Love You feels as patchy as its experimental premise. Riffing on Paris, je t'aime, this film comprises several segments seeking to reflect the Big Apple's diversity and unlikely relationships forged through it. Ten directors had two days to shoot and one week to edit individual segments that are linked by transitions. As a result, the film has a haphazard visual aesthetic, which works to various degrees. The best segments are those that show odd characters navigating the city in unique ways. The first sequence, shot by Mira Nair, features Rifka (Natalie Portman), a Hassid buying her wedding jewels from Jain gem dealer Mansuhkhbai (Irrfan Khan). While these two at first antagonize one another, the common ground they discover is a source of great comedy. Joshua Marston's segment featuring Mitzie (Cloris Leachman) and Abe (Eli Wallach), an elderly Jewish couple squabbling their way down the street, is both endearing and a tribute to a familiar scenario. Another segment that successfully depicts New York life is director Brett Ratner's, in which a nosy pharmacist, played by James Caan, recruits a trustworthy high school student (Anton Yelchin) to take his wheelchair-bound daughter (Olivia Thirlby) to the prom. Other segments feel completely random. Shekhar Kapur's mysterious piece about a concert pianist, Isabelle (Julie Christie), and her rendezvous with waiter Jacob (Shia LaBeouf), is melodramatic and doesn't channel New York enough to be apparent. Overall, New York, I Love You feels like a washed-out Woody Allen attempt in terms of clever dialogue, though each viewer may find favorite sequences in those few humorous or touching moments when the film does succeed. --Trinie Dalton

Product Description

After the success of Paris, Je T'aime, the film's producers take their winning concept across the Atlantic for this compilation film set in Gotham. Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson each make their directorial debuts, and I Love You, New York also boasts directors as varied as Turkish auteur Fatih Akin and blockbuster helmer Brett Ratner. A total of 12 shorts are included in this film with stars includin Bradley Cooper, Kevin Bacon, Orlando Bloom, Julie Christie, Chris Cooper, Shia LaBeouf, Andy Garcia, Rachel Bilson, Emilie Ohana, Natalie Portman, Maggie Q., Stephen Payne, Ethan Hawke, Anton Yelchin, Olivia Thirlby, James Caan, Blake Lively, Drea de Matteo, Ugur Yucel, Eli Wallach, Cloris Leachman, John Hurt, Christina Ricci and Hayden Christensen .

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Self-Conscious, Self-Important, Self-Satisfied--"New York, I Love You" Lacks The Heart Of A Great City September 17, 2010

By K. Harris HALL OF FAMETOP 10 REVIEWER

Format:DVD

One of the advantages or disadvantages of being my friend (depending on who you ask and after which film) is that I will undoubtedly make you watch a movie you might not ordinarily have chosen for yourself. Usually this works out well and we can uncover a little gem or perhaps an ambitious picture that doesn't quite hit the mark but is noteworthy nonetheless. Rarely, however, do I have to apologize. Unfortunately, that's precisely and instinctually what I did when the credits rolled on "New York, I Love You." I turned to my friend and said "I'm sorry." What seemed like a can't miss proposition--talented directors, top notch cast, a charming template in "Paris, je t'aime"--became one of the most disappointingly painful experiences of my movie year. Where "Paris" had romance and charm amidst its highbrow artiness--"New York" just has self-conscious pretensions.

Constructed, just like "Paris," in vignettes by varying directors--"New York" never succeeded in bringing a unifying sense to these disparate stories. Some were baffling, some out-of-place, some seemingly without point. The one thing they all had in common was an air of stifling self-importance. The complete lack of playfulness, humor and absurdity (or color, this is a very white New York) really does a disservice to a city of great vitality. But based on these maudlin tales, I wouldn't be offering this DVD up for sale at the tourism bureau. I have a feeling that those who love this movie will think that everyone else has missed the point--perhaps aren't sophisticated enough. But having been called a film snob, seen almost everything in existence, taught graduate studies in film--I can assure you that I didn't miss this film's "point." I missed its heart and soul.

Oddly enough, the segment that sticks out like a sore thumb is Brett Ratner's (the film's most commercial an oddest choice of director) piece. Why? It is the only segment with humor and an actual through-line plot. So out of place, but at least it works with a little actual feeling in its slight story. Other than that, I enjoyed exactly one other moment when international star Maggie Q avoids an attempted pick-up. "New York, I Love You" really is put together by talented people--I have other films by some of the directors in my DVD collection. I wished they had attempted something less "significant" and more real. With Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Bradley Cooper, James Caan and the wonderful Julie Christie--even these draws couldn't bring me back to "New York" again. KGHarris, 9/10.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A Moody, All-Star Anthology Serves as a Valentine to a Fictionalized New York February 15, 2010

By Ed Uyeshima HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

A dozen stories. Ten filmmakers. 103 minutes. If you do the math, you will draw the same conclusion I did - that there isn't much time for a viewer to make an emotional connection with every episode presented in this all-star 2009 omnibus tribute to New York. An eclectic group of global filmmakers, some well-known, others on the verge, had to meet certain requirements to make the final cut - they were given only 24 hours to shoot, a week to edit, and the result had to reflect a strong sense of a particular NYC neighborhood. The cumulative effect makes for a moody portrait of the city through various couplings, but due to the contrivance of its structure, the film falls short in bringing a deeper emotional resonance to the themes the creators want to convey.

With a couple of key exceptions, the film appears to be more of a valentine to Lower Manhattan. Consequently, there is a fashionably edgy look to the short stories. Israeli-born French director Yvan Attal epitomizes this feeling in two episodes. The first deals with an aggressively talkative writer (an irritating Ethan Hawke) throwing a barrage of romantic and sexual overtures at a sleek Asian woman who appears to have heard it all (Maggie Q). The other is marginally better, focusing on a chance conversation outside a restaurant between a woman taking a cigarette break (an effortlessly sexy Robin Wright Penn) and a man intrigued by her emotional availability (Chris Cooper). Both have O. Henry-type twist endings that make them ultimately entertaining.

A couple of other entries feel more gimmicky by comparison. Brett Ratner's mostly comic entry features Anton Yelchin as a naďve high-school student and Olivia Thirlby as his unexpected prom date with James Caan as her pushy pharmacist father. Mira Nair directed a flat culture-clash encounter between two savvy souls - a Hassid woman about to marry (Natalie Portman) and a Jain diamond dealer (Irrfan Khan) - who become mutually intrigued by their price negotiation meeting. Other episodes feel even more cursory. Portman wrote and directed a brief episode focused on an ebullient toddler (Taylor Geare) and her father (Carlos Acosta) having a play date in Central Park, highlighted by a brief dance performance from Acosta at the end (he is a Cuban-born principal dancer for the Royal Ballet). Chinese director Jiang Wen led Hayden Christensen, Andy Garcia and Rachel Bilson on an empty roundelay of deception and humiliation among thieves at a bar.

Japanese director Shunji Iwai was at the helm of a slight episode featuring Orlando Bloom as a frantic musician working against deadline, while Turkish director Faith Akin shares a brief story of obsession with Uđur Yücel as a solitary artist who wants to paint the face of a local Chinese herbalist (Shu Qi). The entry from Allen Hughes (of the Hughes Brothers) consists mostly of a continuing voiceover of two regretful lovers (Bradley Cooper, Drea de Matteo) hesitant to follow up on their passionate one-night stand. The oddest, most dispiriting entry comes from Shekhar Kapur who directed a script from the late Anthony Minghella (to whom the film is dedicated). It stars Julie Christie as a renowned opera singer returning to a posh Fifth Avenue hotel where she bonds with a palsied, Slovak-accented bellboy played by an overly sensitive Shia LaBeouf. The nature of their relationship is never really divulged, but it ends on a surreal note of little consequence.

Directed and written by Joshua Marston, the best episode is perhaps the least ambitious as it features Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman as an aged, bickering couple on their way to the boardwalk in Coney Island for their 63rd anniversary. The reassuring way she places her head on his shoulder is easily the most touching moment in the film. All in all, this stylish hodgepodge will appeal mostly to those who are drawn to the short story format. Benoît Debie's sharp cinematography at least brings a consistent sheen to the film as it tethers the various storylines to a New York that feels mired in a cinematic fantasy. I just think Woody Allen's "Manhattan" executes on the same approach far more effectively. The extras on the 2010 DVD include a handful of additional scenes (though not the two deleted segments directed by Scarlett Johansson and Andrei Zvyagintsev), interviews with five of the directors and the original theatrical trailer.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not up to the 'Paris' original; redeemed by Mira Nair's transcendent piece January 17, 2011

By Andy Orrock TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

The producers of the bold, uneven yet ultimately rewarding Paris, Je T'Aime (Paris, I Love You) tried to recreate the magic in New York. Unfortunately, they've fallen short. 'Paris' was 18 short films of about seven minutes apiece. Many worked, some did not. The best thing is that each film was a totally separate piece. For the entries you didn't cotton to, you knew there might be a gem just a couple of minutes down the road.

By contrast, the New York film is comprised of 11 longer pieces of approximately 10 minutes apiece. More notably, characters from separate pieces often cross paths...and some pieces are cleaved into parts and reappear later in the film. That means you might see Hayden Christensen or Ethan Hawke later in the film...even when you sag your shoulders when they pop up in the first place.

The only piece that will stick with me was submitted by the always wonderful Mira Nair (The Namesake, Monsoon Wedding). Her film with Natalie Portman and Irrfan Khan is transcendent. The smiles emitted by Portman and Khan in their duely imagined ceremony (you have to see the film to appreciate what I mean there) makes the entire viewing worthwhile.