A series of short film anthologies focuses on finding, keeping, and losing love in the world’s most cosmopolitan cities isn’t the worst idea for a franchise producers have ever come up with. Recruiting various well known directors to film each segment isn’t a terrible notion either. In the compilation Paris, je t’aime, which was released in 2006, the formula worked beautifully. The finished collection features varying styles and stories which highlight not just different characters, but different areas of the city of Paris as well. In its sequel, if that’s the right word, New York City gets its close-up, but some of the magic however didn’t rub off from New York, I Love You’s Parisian predecessor.

I first saw New York, I Love You last year at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was a preview print, a work in progress, and we in the press were warned that spilling any details would come with non-specific consequences. Well due to either my own short term memory, or the fact that very few alterations were made, I could detect no discernable difference between the two versions of NYILY. In reality though, there were two segments removed from the finished film, including Scarlett Johansson’s contribution, thus proving once and for all that Natalie Portman has a brighter future than Scarlett Johansson as a filmmaker. But despite the loss of a big-name like Johansson, the film is still pretty stocked. Allen Hughes (Menace II Society), Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding), Brett Ratner (the Rush Hour movies) and Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth) are amongst the contributors.

The ensemble of directors is nothing to sneeze at, but the thing of it is that the amount of talent gathered for New York, I Love You seems oddly imbalanced as compared to its Parisbrother. Paris, je t’aime featured work by The Coen Brothers, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, Alexander Payne and Gus Van Sant. It also seemed that those directors were granted more creative freedom than the filmmakers in New York. In New York, I Love You, everything seems to come across as some form of Woody Allen. Parishad vampires, magical cowboys, Steve Buscemi, and the ghost of Oscar Wilde. New York, on the other handhas insipid urbanites re-enacting the same conversation on every street corner in lower Manhattan.

New York, I Love You is not without its fair share of charm. Kapur’s segment, which was originally supposed to be directed by Anthony Minghella until his untimely death, broke up a lot of the relationship drama nicely. The story was about a singer played by Julie Christie who’s staying at her favourite Manhattan hotel one last time. Look for the touching moment she shares with the hunchbacked bellboy, played by Shia LaBeouf. This short film had atmosphere, poetry and interesting performances, despite the difficulty in buying “The Beef” as an Eastern European hunchback. Joshua Marston also delivered with his short about a married couple on their 63rd wedding anniversary. Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman are equal parts hilarious and adorable as the couple, bickering in perfect time, as they very slowly make their way to the boardwalk where the first met over six decades earlier.

Strangely, despite the fact that the shorts of New York, I Love You don’t measure up to the same level as Paris, je t’aime, it feels like everyone involved in this film were simply trying too hard. There’s more interconnectivity between the various vignettes, and although I appreciate that, I wonder if it is tied together too strictly? Plus, it leaves no room for individual flare or signature style, because if each segment is tied together, then it also requires some level of continuity. Still, I’d be lying if I said that New York, I Love You wasn’t without its charm. Hopefully, when this series moves on to the next city, like the proposed Jerusalem, I Love You, Rio, Eu Te Amo, and Shanghai, I Love You they put the focus on the artistic expression to create the aesthetic rather than let the aesthetic dictate the art.