2 Days in New York (2012)

Directed by: Julie Delpy | 91 minutes | comedy | Actors: Julie Delpy, Chris Rock, Albert Delpy, Alexia Landeau, Alexandre Nahon, Kate Burton, Dylan Baker, Daniel Brühl, Talen Ruth Riley, Owen Shipman, Malinda Williams, Carmen Lopez, Emily Wagner, Arthur French, Petronia Paley, Alex Manette Marcus Ho, Gregory Korostishevsky, Mai Loan Tran, Pun Bandhu, Johnny Tran

We mainly know the French Julie Delpy here from the charming arthouse films ‘Before Sunrise’ and ‘Before Sunset’ by Richard Linklater, in which she conducted philosophical conversations with Ethan Hawke and experienced romance with a capital “R”. It is not entirely clear what Delpy had in mind with this follow-up to her directorial debut ‘2 Days in Paris’, but the result is nothing less than a cinematic train accident. Or maybe it’s more like a pileup, as one failed scene follows another. It should, presumably, be a light-hearted (romantic?) comedy about a culture clash, with some semi-artistic touches here and there (such as a quick, associative montage or main character Marion “literally” selling her soul during an exhibition). , but above all it has become a nerve-racking film full of unpleasant, tiring moments.

There’s a lot of Delpy in ‘2 Days in New York’. Not only does she play the female lead and directing, she also co-wrote the screenplay. That is why it is so unbelievable that it has become such a stereotypical, forced whole full of banalities and failing slapstick humour. She has also co-wrote the Sunrise/Sunset films, but these usually involved sharp and nuanced observations, with an eye for cultural differences. Her character in ‘Before Sunrise’ was annoyed by the stereotypical view that French people are always so “cute” or “funny” because of their accent, gestures or temperament. And that this is immediately seen as “typically French”. But in ‘2 Days in New York’ she goes too far to the other side, and is no less stereotypical in this regard. In this the French are mainly sausage-smelling, noisy, slightly racist, and sexually very “free” people, who make the life of the poor American Mingus (Rock) hell.

An anthology: Marion’s (Delpy) father gets naked in a massage parlor; Marion’s sister goes to a yoga class braless, causing a breast to constantly peep out from under her sleeveless shirt; the sister’s friend is surprised that Mingus doesn’t smoke weed or accept this activity: after all, he is black; Marion has to spell a word over the phone, using sexual words (and arguing over her French accent). It goes from bad to worse.

Conceptually, the film, and its many scenes, is not so badly conceived. A clash of cultures can lead to fun situations, and from a dramatic point of view it is also interesting to show how a relationship can come under stress when the family of one of the partners comes into play and the manners are not yet known. And often the scenes start nice or potentially funny too – with a silly or inappropriate comment at the kitchen table, a cacophony of the family members, or an advance from the sexually liberated sister – but the right tone is usually just not found, or the lingered on one idea for far too long, making it downright annoying. And sometimes it’s just not funny and rather gloomy, such as with racist comments or a far-reaching excuse to get out of eviction from the apartment building.

When Marion’s surgically trained neighbor checks in with her about an apparent medical problem, a semi-successful comedy scene ensues when the neighbor pretends to be looking at X-rays of Marion while actually trying to get as many glimpses as possible of her sister’s behind. , who is parading around a few meters away, wearing only a t-shirt. Also the moments in which Mingus (rhymes with “cunnilingus”, as sister and her boyfriend observe: hilarious!) retreats to his room and conducts a dialogue with a cardboard cutout of Obama (and Chris Rock can at least be funny again), are still worthwhile to a certain extent, but these scenes must be searched for with a light. Perhaps the best scene is the one in which Vincent Gallo briefly appears as a slightly sinister articulate art lover, who is the actual devil buying Marion’s soul. But it is too little and comes too late in the film to have much effect.

‘2 Days in New York’ may be well-meaning, and Rock and Delpy do their best to make their characters believable, real people (and to some extent, they succeed), but the absurdities and horrifying situations and characters they they surround themselves making the film a very sour apple to bite through. Delpy was also responsible for the music, which is pleasantly light-hearted and frivolous. Unfortunately, this cannot be said of the film itself.