MOVIE - New York, I Love You

Quite artsy -- and delightfully different
Limited release Oct. 16, 2009
R (1:52)
Jan. 26, 2010 at Crossroads with Sheila & Ronnie
RT: 41% cag:
Director: Perhaps ten or eleven, different directors for each of the "shorts"

Andy Garcia, Natalie Portman, Orlando Bloom, Ethan Hawke, Chris Cooper, Robin Wright Penn, James Caan, Bradley Cooper, Julie Christie, Eli Wallach, Cloris Leachman....

This was a very interesting movie. The setting...of course....New York City, mainly different parts of Manhattan. Eleven (???) vignetees/shorts/separate stories that occasionally intertwine and over lap. Most have a cute twist at the end. Some are better than others. And there's only one where you wrinkle your brow and say, whaaaaat??? That was also the one that seemed the longest and most tedious...a bit of fantasy in a world of reality, and it just didn't seem to fit for me (Julie Christie, a no-longer-singing-opera-singer who is about to commit suicide (I think) watches a crippled immigrant jump from her window instead...but it is apparently all in her head....)

These were my standouts, perhaps because I so enjoy the actors? Natalie Portman shines. Her vignettes were thoughtful and clever (two of them, linked by others). The James Caan pharmicist setting up a recently jilted young man with his attractive daughter, to go to his prom - and when the daughter appears, she's in a wheelchair. Every one of the four or five times that Bradley Cooper appeared (incredible eyes, no matter what he does). The scene where Ethan Hawke tries to pick up a woman after he lights her cigarette outside a bar. And Cloris Leachman and Eli Wallach, walking to the boardwalk at Coney Island on their 63rd wedding anniversary...although a bit drawn out, was wonderful.

It was good. I enjoyed it a lot. And the half price happy hour at Buddy's beforehand was yummy, cheap, and perfect....