2 DAYS IN NEW YORK (Julie Delpy). 96 minutes. Some subtitles. Opens Friday (August 10). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: N
It’s unfortunate that Julie Delpy’s 2 Days In New York arrives here just a week after Ruby Sparks.
Delpy’s comedy about a neurotic artist and her boyfriend hosting her unsophisticated family wants to be a Woody Allen picture in the worst possible way, and succeeds, while Ruby Sparks manages to achieve a giddy sense of fantasy similar to the director’s earlier, funny movies without being entirely beholden to Allen’s style.
The larger problem is that Delpy doesn’t really have much to work with here. Although 2 Days In New York is ostensibly a sequel to her 2007 dramedy 2 Days In Paris, catching up with Delpy’s character Marion a few years down the road with a child and a new partner (Chris Rock), it’s much more broadly farcical and far less thoughtful than its predecessor.
Marion’s insouciance has curdled into whiny self-indulgence, and gags about her crass, lusty family land like bricks. Rock’s Mingus is little more than a doormat, and key supporting characters come off as obnoxious rather than endearing.
Given that Delpy shares writing credits with Alexia Landeau and Alex Nahon, who play Marion’s sister and her hipster boyfriend, that may be intentional. But they’re just unbearable.
