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| STAR RATINGS EXPLAINED |
| Unmissable |
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| Excellent |
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| Good |
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| Poor |
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| Tragic |
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| FILM DETAILS | Certificate
15 | | Cast
Julie Delpy
Chris Rock
Daniel Brühl
Albert Delpy
Alexia Landeau
Alexandre Nahon
Alexia Landeau. | | Directors
Julie Delpy. | | Screenwriters
Julie Delpy. | | Running Time
96 minutes |
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2 Days In New York
Next: 2 Days In Corby
Plot
Four years after their hectic trip to Paris, Marion (Delpy) and boyfriend Jack have now parted company, though not before conceiving a son, Lulu. Marion and Lulu now share an apartment with Marion’s new boyfriend, Mingus (Rock), and his daughter. All is going well, until Marion’s dad, sister and her boyfriend pay them a visit... Review
Julie Delpy's second self-penned (and in this case, directed) sequel repeats the trick of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset (co-written with Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater), following in an accomplished original’s footsteps yet somehow improving upon it. Offering a goofy but insightful counter-view to the Before films’ unabashed faith in true love, the film finds Delpy’s Marion split from 2 Days In Paris’ Jack (played by Adam Goldberg) and now with colleague Mingus (Chris Rock) and their two children.
But their life of domestic bliss in midtown Manhattan is shattered when Marion’s eccentric, grieving widower father (Albert Delpy) and sister Rose (Alexia Landau) pop over from Paris, accompanied by Rose’s boyfriend, Manu (Alexandre Nahon), who — to complicate matters further — is one of Marion’s many exes from the first film.
The scene is set for more broad comedy as the two cultures clash again. Delpy, Paris-born but an habituée of New York, is aware of the foibles of both, and affectionately makes fun of them with gusto. So the noisy, nutty but unrestrainedly sexy Frenchies descend on the Big Apple — a city with quirks of its own, for all its buttoned-up exterior — causing mayhem wherever they go.
The still point amid the chaos is straight man Mingus (Rock on appealing form), increasingly bewildered by his Gallic in-laws and reduced to offloading to his lifesize cardboard cut-out of Barack Obama.
Like the first, there’s not much plot, just misunderstandings, tears, arguments, recriminations and reconciliations. Once more we encounter Daniel Brühl as the first film’s eco-terrorist, now a Swampy-style tree-hugger, while Vincent Gallo pops up in a bonkers but somehow brilliant cameo.
Delpy’s Parisian-eye view of New York is fresh and seductive. She has mastered that quintessentially French near-farcical comic style, keeping the pace breakneck and the dialogue fizzing. Yet amid the lunacy, Delpy finds time to return to key themes of love, life and loss. Now 43, her voice carries the timbre of experience: there’s a streak of sadness as Marion accepts the inevitable end of romance. Yet for all the world-weariness she presents (and represents), there’s a deliciously fun absurdity and an irrepressibility about Delpy that, even as she offers us an overtly jaded world, it’s still one in which it’s a pleasure to spend time.
Verdict
Full of wit, intelligence and flair, once more Delpy has created a delightfully irresistible sort-of-romantic comedy. Roll on Before 3.
Reviewed by Liz Beardsworth
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Average user rating for 2 Days In New York
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| RE: Irritating | | Agree with the above.
Perfectly well made, written & performed I guess, yet it annoyed the hell out of me due to the insufferable French family who I all wanted to die horribly & painfully. Who also would have thought Chris Rock would end up being the most sympathetic character? I can see why people like it (particularly if you're a fan of Woody Allen or s In Paris I'll admit I haven't seen), but it just did my head in. The scene involving a cameo by a famously difficult actor musing over... More | | Posted by Qwerty Norris at 08:12, 22 May 2012 | Report This Post | |
| | | Irritating | | Annoying characters acting in a juvenile way, it felt like 2 days in my cinema seat! ... More | | | Posted by Y0gi at 20:46, 19 May 2012 | Report This Post | |
| | | Irritating | | Annoying characters acting in a juvenile way, it felt like 2 days in my cinema seat! ... More | | | Posted by Y0gi at 22:15, 18 May 2012 | Report This Post | |
| | | Irritating | | Annoying characters acting in a juvenile way, it felt like 2 days in my cinema seat! ... More | | | Posted by Y0gi at 21:40, 18 May 2012 | Report This Post | |
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