That's what I love about New York: everyone's from a different place.

New York, I Love You

Paris, je t'aime, is one of my favorite films. It is an excellent film comprised of short stories about love in Paris. The film explores all types of love and relationships; heterosexual, homosexual, family, broken love, love rekindled, love beginning. Even a story about love for Paris is explored. This successful film is spawning a whole franchise called the "Cities of Love." Jerusalem, Rio, and Shanghai will all be featured locations for the franchise. With a winning idea begun with Paris, je t'aime, the franchise's second film, New York, I Love You should have been just as a good. Unfortunately, it lacked a lot of the elements that made Paris, je t'aime so special.

The film suffered from a lack of representation. The film did not use New York to its full potential. New York has many distinct neighborhoods with their own love stories. In some of the stories, it was easy to tell the setting (Chinatown, Central Park, The Diamond District), while others were just random street corners or bars. Every neighborhood in New York is unique and many were not clearly represented. I didn't see Chelsea or Harlem to name a few. Part of the magic in Paris, je t'aime. is that there are captions to tell you where in Paris you are. If one is familiar with Paris, they can better visualize the location and place themselves in the story through the neighborhood.

A second lack of representation came from the kind of love shown. Almost all of the stories centered around heterosexual, Caucasian love. There were four non Caucasian characters. There was one story that didn't involve heterosexual love. New York City is the ultimate American melting pot. There is a plethura of different races and ethnicities existing in the city. New York has a homosexual population, that was not represented at all in the film. This film lacked the diversity New York prides itself on.

Finally, most of the stories didn't represent all the elements that make up love. Most of the stories were sweet and cute, which is part of love and just fine, but the film didn't really try to go beyond. Love is scary, exciting, tense, passionate and so much more. The film seemed to start and end at the attraction phase of love. The stories were very one-dimensional; unlike Paris, je t'aime, the individual stories didn't tell an overarching story about love.

For all the negativity I've written about the film so far, there were some memorable in a good way vignettes. Allen Hughes' segment with Bradley Cooper and Drea de Matteo was a bright spot. The initial feeling of excitement/uncertainty/self doubt when you are getting to know someone was captured well by these actors. The outbursts of smiles followed quickly by panic while on your way to meet this new person happens to most of us. This is one love story you're truly cheering for.

The Natalie Portman-directed segment was my favorite. The only segment not about heterosexual love, the short story was about a little girl and her father. The catch, people think the father is actually the girl's "manny," as he is Latino and she is white. The two actors were sweet together and highlighted how love can be colorblind and how ignorant people can be.

New York, I Love You lacked the love and spirit of it's predecessor. Paris, je t'aime set up the perfect foundation for New York, I Love You but the writers and directors decided to ignore that. I hope the other "Cities of Love" films will learn from New York, I Love You's extreme mistakes.

Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada"

Meryl Streep can do no wrong. She truly is a chameleon and the greatest actress of all time. No question. Her turn as ice queen/powerhouse editor Miranda Priestly earned her a rightfully deserved Oscar nomination. With her dagger-like eyes and slightly pursed lips, she can shatter spirits. Her lack of a raised voice when furious makes her employees feel like failures. Truly, Streep is a goddess.

Netflix Queue

The Brothers Bloom-I missed this in theaters.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre-Keeping up with my exploration of classic horror.
Dog Day Afternoon-This is in my Netflix Instant queue. Since "Friday Night Lights" isn't controlling my online viewing life anymore, I need to start making a dent in the Instant queue. This film has been at the top of my queue since I started it.