Two Days In New York (2012) - Julie Delpy

Synopsis:

Recently divorced and with a young child to take care of, Marion shacks up with new fella Mingus. However, her family, fresh from Paris to visit her son, put a heavy strain on their relationship. 

Julie Delpy returns with the sequel to the perfectly wonderful Two Days in Paris. It’s also an excellent example of sequels coming up short to the masterpieces that preceded them. I wouldn’t compare the drop in quality to the likes of the ever worsening Transformers franchise but there’s a tendency with sequels to try and out-do the previous outing not with a deeper or more meaningful narrative but to simply throw more money at it and hurl the characters into more outrageous situations. Two Days in New York is no different. The subtle craziness of Paris was engaging in the first outing  but this time the crazy comes to New York in the form of Marion’s family as well as the completely unneeded addition of one of her ex-boyfriends.  Every character is exaggerated and the charm is completely lost.

This is a shame as the film started off well. Chris Rock was actually a nice addition to the cast and COULD have fitted in well. The reason he didn’t gel as well as Jack did in the original is because he’s far too normal. He’s just a guy with no interesting quirk or habit, just nothing. Last time Jack had his flaws and weirdness and so the relationship between him and Marion remained captivating with their back and forth exchanges, one minute he’d be in the wrong, the next minute she would and so on. But Chris Rock’s character is so painfully normal you just feel sorry for the guy as this gang of French psychopaths ruin his life.

But not all is lost… Grandpa to the rescue!! Jeannot is an enchanting character. Played by Julie Delpy’s actual father, Albert Delpy brings life to this picture which without him would have probably been an absolute failure. At times all he has to do is throw a random stare of confusion as he tries to understand an Americanism or the English language and he’ll have you in stitches.  He’s like an Alien, so out of place and yet is completely oblivious to his own misunderstandings. Well written and well-played. Something you’d expect from a writer of Delpy’s standard, and yet her own character, the lead of all things, simply falls into the background… just another pain in the arse for Mingus (Chris Rock) to have to put up with.

Overview:

An admirable attempt at trying to out-do an already untouchable film. In the end it tries too hard to  compete and ends up injuring itself. It really begs the question what was the point?  

Rating:
★★★