Two Days in New York

Julie Delpy really has a good ear for shrewdly observational, overlapping conversations. It started with her Richard Linklater- directed bookends, 1995's "Before Sunrise" and 2004's "Before Sunset", in which she and Ethan Hawke contributed much of their own dialogue (and earned adapted screenplay Oscar nominations for the latter). She then translated her unique gift to her own sophomore directorial effort, 2007's "2 Days in Paris", a romantic dramedy that mined her character's repressed hesitancies about settling down with a neurotic, irritating interior decorator named Jack. Delpy comes back again as the star, director, and writer (this time partnering with co-star Alexia Landeau, who plays her sister Rose) of this 2012 sequel, a culture clash comedy paced like a free-for-all French farce. Although the results are not always fortuitous, her aptitude as a filmmaker has clearly improved since Paris, this time aided by a far more likable leading man, an atypically subdued Chris Rock versus the insufferable Adam Goldberg who is blessedly absent from this film.

Delpy herself plays the same character, artist Marion Dupré, picking up her life in New York a few years after she broke up with Jack, had his baby, and moved in with Mingus, a talk- radio host. Instead of wallowing in commitment issues, Marion is now juggling a busy life raising her towheaded toddler Lulu as well as Mingus' young daughter Willow, and at the same time, getting ready for an exhibit of her photographs at a gallery. Nevertheless, she is still the same intensely self-doubting woman, a Gallic Annie Hall for the millennium with a saucy temperament. Her relationship with the ever-patient Mingus is put to the test when her recently widowed father Jeannot, her passive-aggressive sister Rose, and Rose's clueless, pot-smoking boyfriend Manu all come for a weekend visit. Delpy wisely uses Mingus as the audience's proxy watching her family as exaggerated caricatures of French stereotypes. This is where she shows a genuinely deft hand in presenting everyone's vitriolic, self-absorbed behavior including Marion who is constantly goaded into childishness by Rose's indirect insults. In fact, her family becomes a comical circus sideshow, a constant public embarrassment forcing Marion to tell a whopper of a lie about a phony brain tumor to her nasty neighbors who want her evicted.

Where Delpy goes a bit too far is the somewhat surreal part when Marion decides to sell her soul as part of the exhibit and tries to get it back from the Mephistophelian buyer, who is none other than indie filmmaker Vincent Gallo. Using such an extreme plot conceit, she appears to be overreaching on deeper issues of identity and family loss, but the movie eventually recovers its comic rhythm. The puppet framing device is trite but probably effective for those who had not seen the previous film. As Mingus, Rock grounds the story with his terrifically caustic performance, whether dealing with the next appalling act of his unpredictable in-laws or talking privately to a cardboard cut-out of Obama for spiritual guidance. Albert Delpy, Julie's real-life father, returns as the Bad Santa-like Jeannot and has a grand time portraying his character's whimsical child-like manner. Landeau has a good time playing the selfish sister from hell as Rose, while Alexandre Nahon, who helped with the development of the story, easily plays the boorish interloper that is Manu. Kate Burton and especially Dylan Baker have a few moments to shine as the intrusive neighbors. Delpy's obvious role model continues to be early-period Woody Allen, and she manages to work in his oeuvre with surprising fluidity.

Marion (Delpy) is a new mom, but has broken up with Jack (2 Days in Paris). She leans heavily on co-worker Mingus (Chris Rock). Eventually they get together, but her dysfunctional family is coming....

This is Julie Delpy's sequel to her '2 Days in Paris'. The family is still the oversexed, inappropriate mess from the last film. Chris Rock is a little more put together than Jack, and basically plays the straight man in this. The same thing happens in both films. So it's inevitable that this feels less original. That is until we get to the soul.

The soul scene with Vincent Gallo is hilarious. I wish that Julie Delpy had pushed it more by showing the physicality. However, I think Chris Rock struck the wrong tone in the scene right after Vincent Gallo. It was time to push the comedy, but he kept it playing straight. Nevertheless, Julie Delpy was way out there and it was fun to see. This film is charming and funny. There is a bit of Woody Allen in this.

A good idea before watching a film sequel would be to check out the original, imagine watching Return of The Jedi without knowing that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's father (apologies if I've spoiled that for anybody). Well, I agreed to watch 2 Days in New York today without any idea that it was the follow-up to 2 Days In Paris, a French film about relationships, I found out. Horrified that I had been tricked into watching (what i assumed was) a Romance film, I was expecting the worst, but this was actually quite funny, not as funny as The Dictator, but certainly not a romance, more of a drama about mad families.

Chris Rock plays Mingus and Julie Delpy plays Marion, a couple in their late 30s who both have kids from previous relationships. They're a classic middle-class couple, living in a nice New York apartment and both with good jobs. However, Marion's family from France quickly arrives to visit her, and all sorts of madness ensues, from the younger sister who is constantly craving sex (with anyone), to the sister's boyfriend, who brings drug dealers back to the apartment. The film is like a sophisticated version of Meet The Parents, and without a doubt the only time I've seen Chris Rock in a serious role, playing a responsible guardian in the film rather than the comedian we all know and love, but it works. The film doesn't directly follow on from the original, (or so my friends told me, they could have just been lying), so you can watch it as a stand-alone film, I certainly enjoyed it. Surprisingly good.

7/10

I have to say this movie kept me laughing! I was a Julie Delpy fan anyway,so when I saw that Chris Rock was in it & they were playing a couple I thought this could be interesting. I really loved that the movie had great pacing. It moved along pretty quickly. When the family finally arrived from France the movie shifts into high gear. I especially loved the script.I never knew what a great writer Julie Delpy was!The father is a hoot,I loved that the sister thinks that her & Chris Rock have this connection(Even if he's with her sister,and she came with her boyfriend.}I love how things being said in french & English get mixed up. I can see that Chris Rocks time on Broadway is paying off and he's picking better movies. Anyway give this movie a shot you won't be disappointed.

Even though this movie is cute and harmless to watch, I just can't call it a very successful one. I can see what it tried to do and be like and this all works in some parts but more often it just doesn't.

I really have some mixed feelings about this movie. Can't say that i hated it and I quite enjoyed it in parts but its approach just doesn't always work out too well. It's a movie that tries to be a realistic drama about life, involving family but it inserts some crazy and highly unlikely situations and characters, that just don't blend in very well with the movie its story and the approach it was taking. It's an approach that could work out very well for a movie of this sort, as long as all of its situations remain somewhat realistic, which just too often isn't the case for this movie.

It even makes the movie somewhat tiresome after a while. You start wondering were it all be heading at and what the overall point and purpose of the entire movie is. Luckily the movie doesn't ever get annoying, so it still remains a watchable enough little film.

It certainly has some charm to it, which is the saving grace for this movie. Cute is a good way to describe this movie, that luckily doesn't ever become a bittersweet, cuddly one. It's deliberately small and simplistic with its story, characters and settings, which makes this an all the more warm movie to watch. I can certainly see some people still really enjoying this movie, especially females in their 30-40's, which this movie seems to aim towards.

I definitely like Chris Rock better in this sort of roles, instead of flat out comedy type of roles. Sure, this movie is still being a comedy but a far more subtle one, that also definitely requires its actors to do a whole lot of acting. So really, even if you just can't stand Chris Rock, you are still able to really like him and his performance in this movie. He doesn't goes overboard with anything and it's being a really humble and human-like performance by him.

It still seemed like an odd choice to me to do this movie mostly in French. It's a movie set in New York but yet Julie Delpy manages to still turn this into mostly a French movie. Nothing wrong with that of course but I just feel that this will scare off a lot of people from ever watching this movie.

It's a fun and sweet enough little movie but also nothing more than just that really.

6/10

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