In 2007’s 2 Days in Paris, Julie Delpy’s Marion was taking her New York boyfriend back home to Paris to meet her neurotic family and a laundry list of her ex-boyfriends. This time she has a different boyfriend (Chris Rock), and her neurotic family and a tag-along ex-boyfriend are traveling to New York to visit her. What results is another round of cultures clashing and close-quarters living leading to her relationship being tested by sudden strain. Sometimes watching it all play out is funny, and sometimes, well... it just feels like conflict being introduced for the sake of conflict.
The main problem with the film is that it never quite makes it clear where it’s going. We get a series of vignettes where Delpy’s family behaves inappropriately, she and Rock react to them incredulously, and then wash, rinse, repeat. You never get the sense that the shenanigans are building to anything in particular, and, ultimately, a scene where Rock demands that the sister and the ex-boyfriend go stay in a hotel is the closest that the film comes to introducing any real conflict. Consequently, when the movie does suddenly reach a climactic moment, it feels more crafted and phony than it would if it were something that was being built to throughout.
Thankfully, Delpy is funny and relatable in the lead role, and Rock is the same as the love interest, so 2 Days in New York is entertaining enough in its quipping alone to hold your attention for its reasonable 96 minute run time. And Vincent Gallo shows up to make a pretty amusing cameo as well, so there’s that to look forward to. It almost makes up for the lame gag of French people trying to smuggle gourmet meats and cheeses through customs.
