2 DAYS IN NEW YORK

2 DAYS IN NEW YORK

(director/writer: Julie Delpy; screenwriters: Alexia Landeau/based on a story by Ms. Delpy, Ms. Landeau and Alex Naho; cinematographer: Lubomir Bakchev; editor: Isabelle Devinck; music: Julie Delpy; cast: Chris Rock (Mingus), Julie Delpy (Marion Dupre), Albert Delpy (Jeannot), Alexia Landeau (Rose), Alex Nahon (Manu), Emily Wagner (Susan), Dylan Baker (Ron), Kate Burton (Bella), Owen Shipman (Lulu), Talen Riley (Willow), Malinda Williams (Elizabeth), Vincent Gallo (Himself); Runtime: 95; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Scott Franklin/Ms. Delpy/Ulf Israel/Jean-Jacques Neira/Hubert Toint; Magnolia Pictures; 2012-France-in English and some French, with English subtitles for the French)

“A misguided breezy offbeat sitcom, that visits all the wrong places.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

2 Days in New York is a misguided breezy offbeat sitcom, that visits all the wrong places and casts unfunny aspersions on the French as argumentative, vulgar and unwashed. It offers the same basic plot as Meet the Parents, except in this situation the heroine’s obnoxious French relatives visit her in Manhattan and crude comedy results from a culture clash, misunderstandings and constant bickering. Besides the story line being irritating, its bizarre Gallic humor never registers on foreign soil. This messy screwball comedy by director-actress -writer Julie Delpy is her sequel to 2 Days in Paris (2007).

The 38-year-old high-strung French photographer Marion Dupre (Julie Delpy) lives in Manhattan with her 3-year-old son Lulu (Owen Shipman), from her former New York lover she met in Paris, and works at the Village Voice as a photographer. There she meets the African-American Mingus (Chris Rock) and they live together in a cozy but modest Village apartment. Obama obsessed and hipster VV writer and radio talk show personality Mingus, for its crude comedy we are constantly reminded his name rhymes with cunnilingus, has a young daughter Willow (Talen Riley) from a previous marriage, who also lives with them.

The gist of the story is that Marion’s loose-cannon non-English-speaking father Jeannot (Albert Delpy, Julie’s real dad), her rival contentious nympho younger sister Rose (Alexia Landeau, co-writer) and the not so cool dope smoking loudmouth pretentious artist and wannabe black ex-boyfriend Manu (Alex Nahon) visit the couple for 2 days to attend the opening of Marion’s gallery photo show and their visit brings about much tension and anxiety because of their boorish behavior. In fact the visit becomes so upsetting to the once stable household, that the acerbic, quick-tempered Mingus thinks of breaking up with the woman he loves.

More suited for cable than a theater release.

Jack is gone, replaced by Mingus (Chris Rock), a journalist with a radio show and a short fuse when it comes to occupying the cramped space he shares with Marion’s son by Jack and his daughter from a previous relationship. Delpy is boundlessly appealing. And Rock is acerbic fun, notably in the imaginary debates he stages with Obama. But the frenzied cross-cultural gags take the piss out of the real subject: how blood ties can turn love into a battlefield.

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REVIEWED ON 11/16/2012 GRADE: C

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