DVD Review: Julie Delpy And Chris Rock In The Screwball Rom-Com 2 DAYS IN NEW YORK

Julie Delpy’s follow-up to 2 Days In Paris, titled 2 Days In New York is a pleasant enough screwball comedy – think of it as a Woody Allen film made by a neurotic French woman, rather than a neurotic New Yorker. It’s entertaining, but it lacks real bite.

The film follows Marion (Delpy) and Mingnus (Chris Rock) as they try to keep their relationship together during a visit from her father (Delpy’s real father Albert), her sister Rose (co-writer Alexia Landeau) and Roses’ crazy boyfriend Manu (Alexandre Nahon). Throw in every culture-clash joke that you can think of and you know what to expect.

2 Days In New York isn’t a bad film, but you’ve seen it all before, and it offers nothing new. Everyone has the perfect life and the perfect apartment and the real problems are all very trivial (your family are messy eaters!). It’s a French farce, although everyone is game enough to make fun of their image and culture.

Delpy throws a few nice directorial flourishes in here and there, and she shares decent chemistry with Rock, who plays an Obama loving radio host (what else?). Rock brings an added energy to the film, and when he is sidelined the film loses momentum, stumbling towards the usual language barrier guffaws.

2 Days In New York is an amiable enough time-passer, but it doesn’t offer anything new to the culture clash or the relationship comedy genres. Still, you could find worse ways to spend 90 mins.