The Ziegfeld Theater
Tuesday, upon coming back to work, I received a call from my Uncle Joe who works just a couple of blocks from me. We do lunch every now and again and hadn’t had lunch in awhile so I was excited to hear from him, but he was calling with an even better invite. He had an extra ticket to the movie premiere of New York, I Love You. At first I was like, “oh I have book group and drinks with a friend”. Then it hit me, “Beth, you are being invited to a movie premier, as in before the movie opens, this is a unique opportunity, jump on it!” So I told him I’d get back to him by noon and got in touch with peeps to let them know I had a change of plans for that evening.
Movie Poster for New York, I Love You
I met my Joe at the Ziegfeld Theater on West 54th Street around 7PM. The line was incredibly long to get in, but thankfully Joe knew the guy running the event so we bypassed the line. We went into the theater around 7:30PM and their was popcorn, water and soda for everyone attending. The theater was beautiful! It reminded me of a Broadway theater when I walked in as opposed to a movie theater. There was a curtain in front of the screen (all very dramatic). We were in the 2nd row to the right of the screen, they were great seats.
Uncle Joe & Me!
The movie started between 8-8:30PM. I wasn’t sure what to expect because usually when you have that many star studded actors in a movie (ie:
He’s Just Not That Into You) it gets panned because people think there is just too much going on. Two of the producers spoke before the movie started. One of the producers was the Producer for
Paris, Je T’aime. I wish I had seen that movie before I saw New York, I Love You. The producer said that when he made Paris, Je T’aime he planned to make a whole series of “I Love You” movies and after Paris he couldn’t think of a better city to base a movie in then NYC.
The movie is “a book of short stories more than a novel”. That’s the best way to describe it. There are 11 shorts and one segment that weaves in and out of the shorts. Each of the 11 shorts had different writers, directors and actors. Can you say you love a book of short stories when you love some stories more than others? I think so, if the stories that win you over are strong enough. The three strongest storylines in my opinion were: 1) The Prom Story, 2) The Chris Cooper and Robin Wright Penn story and 3) the Cloris Leachman story. I won’t get into what they were about, because I don’t want to spoil the movie, but they were definitely my 3 clear favorites.
The overall theme was about love: new love, infatuated love, family love, old love, love from afar, haunted love, love unknown, etc. I love love, so the theme was right up my alley. I especially love love in the context of marriage so some stories stood out to me in that way more than others. It was also about love of a place! In this instance New York City. Since I live in NYC I enjoyed seeing all the spots where they filmed, and seeing my apartment building 3 times (woot!), and just appreciating the idiosyncrasies of NYC….ahhh…this crazy city that I love.
While I wouldn’t say you need to run out and see this movie in the theaters, I would definitely say it would be worth renting, worth seeing!
Overall rating: 3.5 stars!
Post in Comments:
Have you seen Paris, je T’aime? If so, what was your favorite love story from that set of shorts?
Love your blog! You’re so lucky that you got to go to the premier! I can’t wait to see this movie (although I must admit I still haven’t seen Paris, je T’aime). Maybe I’ll tackle both in one weekend! I love New York too, and any movies about the city. So cool that your apartment made the cut!
[...] Movie Premiere of New York, I Love You! [...]