Brilliant and touching

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Near the end of this movie, Vincent Gallo turns up as himself, proclaims himself a polymath, and starts questioning the existence of the human soul. The fact that I couldn't tell if this scene was a hideous joke or some kind of emotional conclusion testifies to the maddening failure of 2 Days In New York to engage anyone except, presumably, Julie Delpy. Delpy writes and directs, and stars as Marion, a neurotic photographer whose monstrous family comes over from Paris to cause havoc. Her boyfriend, Mingus (Chris Rock), suffers their broad humour and rudeness with patience and dignity. Will Marion and Mingus survive this ordeal? More importantly, will we the audience?"Life is harder to handle than any dragon," Marion concludes, near the end. Hear-hear. Who needs big-budget CG blockbusters when you've real insight into the human condition at a fraction of the cost? And yet, ironically, 2 Days In New York is more shallow and crass (yet simultaneously safe and twee) than ninety percent of multiplex movies. Blandly directed, self-consciously "wacky", peopled by infantile characters who show no signs of behaving like recognisable adults, the film breaks down into a series of tonally erratic comedy setpieces and mildly zany episodes full of overlapping banter and pertaining to nothing but a vague sense of snarky middle-class discontent. This is what I imagine a Friends movie would look like if they attempted to recapture the magic now: ego mayhem, cheap 'n' chuckling sex jokes, and cringeworthy First World whining.

A sequel-of-sorts to Delpy's own "2 Days in Paris" (which had Adam Goldberg as her lover meeting her family), "2 Days in New York" transplants her character's story to The Big Apple, with her excitable, "lust for life" father (Albert, Julie's real life papa) and promiscuous, sexually liberated sister (Alexia Landeau) , along with Alexia's pot-smoking, numbskulled, unfiltered boyfriend (Alexandre Nahon) visiting from Paris for two days. Delpy is now with Chris Rock, and their relationship gets very complicated when the relatives' wacky antics and unpredictable behavior often result in exhaustion, bickering, miscommunication, and embarrassment. Rock's brand of humor is far more understated and kept under restraint here, but his reactions to Alexia's constant hostile interactions with Delpy (sisters will be sisters, right?), awkward exchanges with Albert due to the language barrier, and Alexandre's dopey ill-advised (…out-of-touch, out-dated, and wrong-headed) comments (and difficulty with the English language; he proved to be the worst interpreter for Albert) often about American (and African American) culture are priceless (and realistic). Delpy's character goes through a bit of mid-life crises (she's only 37 but feels old, fat, and a failure in relationships), but her relations with Rock are at times touching, frustrating, amusing, and prone to madness. There's seems to be an ease and congeniality between them before the family arrives, with the expected chaos that comes when a group of mixed personalities stays in one location for any period. A gallery show for Delpy's photography where her most extravagant piece is her "soul" (where she loses it when a nasty critic verbally assaults her work in a calm tone), Rock's topics on his political radio show soon including Delpy's relatives and a caller a bit too flirtatious, Delpy trying to get her contract (selling the soul) from pretentious actor Vincent Gallo which results in fisticuffs (!), a tenant threatening to have Delpy and Rock evicted due to noise (Delpy tells her she has a brain tumor just to stop this from happening, creating a whole litany of ensuing problems!), Alexia's walking around nude under a shirt (provoking Dylan Baker's lust! He has a small role as a doc) and looking for hookups after sending Alexandre packing, Delpy and Alexia at odds about EVERYTHING (they like to take swipes at each other about their supposed flaws and life's mistakes made), the measuring of Delpy's child's penis when Alexia says he's got a "micropenis", and Alexandre having a drug dealer meet him in Rock and Delpy's apartment to score some weed (!) are just some of the moments that really create a tumultuous and hectic degree of anxiety, surprise, strife, and, most of all, humor. I really enjoyed this movie. Kind of like a Woody Allen movie, with a mix of French and African-American characters together for quite the interesting comic cocktail. I love Delpy from the Linklater "Before" movies, and her character goes through a lot of relatable trials involving a woman dealing with a family that can be a handful, trying to survive the opening of her work (focusing on her life from certain points) with all the pressure that comes with possible (or no) success, coping with insecurities, and a surprise pregnancy. Rock's conversations with Obama (a billboard of him) cracked me up. I also enjoyed the location shooting; it feels like the 70s/80s when New York was alive with us following characters populating its setting. Delpy has learned a lot working with talented artists; she has a firm grasp on directing actors, developing characters, and shooting the unfolding story.

I think it's hilarious that some of the reviewers chastise the FRENCH Julie Delpy for portraying French people abroad in an unbelievable and unflattering light. Yeah of course you are more likely to be right! Part of the charm of the movie is showing that many cultures, when travelling, behave far more informally than they do at home. The situations here are supposed to be caricatures and not politically correct plastic people and they work well. And yes, the French talk about sex a lot - it's part of their charm - and they like to embarrass each other too. These guys are supposed to be from Brittany which isn't Parisienne sophistication but rural grit and it makes for a very funny movie that doesn't contain a Allen-esque message but is great entertainment pure and simple. Don't come to the movie expecting Chris Rock standup and zaniness (great casting for that reason alone) but to be humoured in a gentle way more reminiscent of slapstick than Woody Allen. Julie Delpy writes very well and maintains a good pace as director. All in all a job well done.

After watching 2 Days in New York i simply don't wan't to see the prequel. What amazed me, though, is that every single member of the cast did an excellent job. Even the script offers a fair amount of funny situation which leaves you with the question what went wrong.In my case this ended up with Chris Rock (otherwise not my cup of tea) creating the most lovable character of them all. The French family visiting is a bunch of logorrheic maniacs. It actually didn't matter where they came from, since their behaviour has nothing to do with geography rather with psychiatry. Smaller characters break up this verbal orgy once in a while...