After seeing this film, we didn’t think it was as good as it could have been. And thought “Love” was missing throughout the entire film. It did however seem to showcase these people’s different stories in this rather large and unpredictable city. How accurate this paints a picture of the Big Apple (New York) is unclear. There are so many different ethnicities throughout the city it creates some interesting views on the culture there. The city has its moments of shining with the use of the clever cinematography, which was used and captivates New York City in a rather cinematically type of a way.
This film is a myriad of different stories collected together by different directors bringing their stories to this famous and quite well known city. These directors include: Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Allen Hughes, Shunji Iwai, Wen Jiang, Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Brett Ratner, Randall Balsmeyer (director of the transitions) Shekhar Kapur (segment “Hotel Suite”) and actress Natalie Portman (segment “Natalie Portman”).
There were a number of writers involved in this production as well such as Emmanuel Benbihy, Tristan Carné, Hall Powell, Israel Horovitz, James C. Strouse, Shunji Iwai, Israel Horovitz, Hu Hong, Yao Meng, Israel Horovitz, Scarlett Johansson, Joshua Marston, Alexandra Cassavetes, Stephen Winter, Jeff Nathanson, Anthony Minghella, Natalie Portman, Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Olivier Lécot, and Suketu Mehta.
The film has an independent feel about it and was artsy, there were a number of actors on board you might recognize at least a few of the cast who were involved in these productions. I’m not sure which one of these segments I liked the best, but the oddest of them all was the segment “Shekhar Kapur” which starred Shia LaBeouf as Jacob and Julie Christie as Isabelle with John Hurt also appearing as the Waiter.
More well-known actors appear in this such as: Bradley Cooper playing Gus in the segment “Allen Hughes” along with Drea de Matteo who plays Lydia. Natalie Portman appears in the segment “Mira Nair”. Orlando Bloom plays David and Christina Ricci plays Camille in segment “Shunji Iwai”. Hayden Christensen plays Ben, Andy Garcia plays Garry and Rachel Bilson plays Molly in segment “Jiang Wen”. Ethan Hawke plays the Writer and Maggie Q plays the Call Girl in “Yvan Attal”. Anton Yelchin plays the Boy in the Park in segment “Brett Ratner” along with Olivia Thirlby and Blake Lively who plays the Girlfriend of the Boy and James Caan who plays Mr. Riccoli.
Robin Wright plays Anna in segment “Yvan Attal” as Robin Wright Penn along with Chris Cooper playing Alex. Eva Amurri plays Sarah and Justin Bartha plays Sarah’s Boyfriend in “Transitions” together. Ugur Yücel plays the Painter and Qi Shu plays the Chinese herbalist in segment “Fatih Akin”. And I thought the most noteworthy segment was Eli Wallach playing Abe in segment “Joshua Marston” along with Cloris Leachman as Mitzie they were hilarious together as an old married couple.
If you thought this film was interesting, you may enjoy the film Love Actually (2003) which has more romance and a far more underlining love theme using different connections than this film does. However, this film was entertaining enough to watch. I wanted to mention that this is an anthology film, which some people might not find interesting or want to follow numerous separate stories thrown together into one big melting pot of a film.
We didn’t know what to expect from this, it had an interesting combination of actors paired together and the film is a suspense thriller type flick. I think it was good enough to hold your attention throughout the story, it has an interesting plot twist and the ending might not be what you would have expected. This was Marcel Langenegger’s first effort as a director and he seemed to capture this daring yet provocative atmosphere. Mark Bomback was responsible for the screenplay, he previously had written the screenplay for Live Free or Die Hard (2007) starring Bruce Willis and Race to Witch Mountain with The Rock (Dwaine Johnson) (2009).
Ewan McGregor plays the character Jonathan McQuarry and is the focus of the story, we see him as a kind of introverted accountant who zests for life but is unable to obtain it. He is seeking some adventure when he meets up with Wyatt Bose played by Hugh Jackman. His character is over the top and outgoing, looking at life from the other end. There is a secret sex type club where men and women get together with no strings attached and have one night stands. This club is exclusive to workaholics who don’t have time for a deep committed relationship. Along the way, Jonathan meets up with a woman simply named S. She is played by actress Michelle Williams. You might know her from the television series Dawson’s Creek as Jen Lindley starring alongside James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson and Kerr Smith.
More of the cast includes Bruce Altman playing a Lawyer, model Karolina Muller appears as a waitress, Natasha Henstridge is Simone Wilkinson, Lisa Gay Hamilton is Detective Russo, Malcolm Goodwin is a Cabbie, Paul Sparks is Detective Ed Burke, Kenneth Lee is a waiter, Maggie Q is Tina, Florencia Lozano is the Clancey Receptionist, Emelie Jeffries is the Medical Examiner, and Javier Godino is the Bank Manager.
I think you will find this to be pretty entertaining; it was not a standout film…but it had it merits. Surely it is worth a rental or whatnot to watch on a weekend. It is a typical cat and mouse mind game between the leading characters which leads to some suspenseful moments.
