For my movie review this week, I'm taking a look at a collective cinematic work "New York, I Love You".
Based on the success of "Paris je t'aime" in 2006, movie producer Emmanuel Benbihy continues his "Cities of Love" series. In the latest installment "New York, I Love You", he follows the same format by knitting standalone stories yet putting all of them under one theme of "finding love".
American movie makers seem to have a rage for New York City. Every year countless movies are set in the Big Apple, switching back and forth among the recognizable city landmarks. It is the same with this movie, for which Emmanuel invites 11 world-renowned directors to tell an ensemble of stories that all happened in the city. You can tell this is New York City at the first sight of the movie.
But even if "New York, I Love You" contains as many as 11 tales with the New York street scenes throughout, it's still unable to capture the city's pulse or showcase the peculiar and unique aspects of the city, which finally serves the New-York-labeled food tastes as nothing special.(www.hXen.com)
There is no denying that love stories could be quite homogenized in reality: in today's world a white collar worker in Beijing could face the same love problems besetting a London office lady. However, it doesn't mean that movie makers could jump out of a particular cultural context when elaborating a universal theme.
From a probability study's perspective, no viewer should expect all the 11 stories to be equally touching and alluring.
Some of them are to a degree "half baked" that I can make neither head nor tails of it. But some others do stand out and leave you with an understanding smile.
A story could be as simple as an older couple grumbling. Short as it is, the 10-minute episode triggers your enormous empathy as the couple is staging their own version of "finding love" in a town that is regarded as belonging to the young.
Good to know that the "Cities or Love" series will come to Shanghai this year. In light of the Expo slogan "Better City, Better Life", I'm wondering if the producer can also make a "better movie" this time.
On a scale between 1 and 10, I'm giving the movie a SIX.
