This is one of those mash-up movies where we combine shorts from a bunch of directors, bind them with the most gossamer of threads and call it a feature film. Like all films created this way, it’s uneven, sometimes jarring and kind of loose in the joints. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t something sort of beautiful about it. After all, Manhattan is probably America’s most cinematic city. She just sits there, all lit-up, gorgeous and throbbing and does half the work for you.

There are some weak stories – the one with Natalie Portman as a Hasidic woman about to be married jumps to mind – that kind of wreck things. There’s a bickering old-couple piece toward the end with Cloris Leachman and Eli Wallach that breaks my heart a little. It’s stereotypical twaddle unworthy of its actors, and probably should have been cut. Also, Shia LeBeouf doing an Eastern European accent is a muy questionable plan. Lastly, current Hollywood convention be damned, you CAN have too much Bradley Cooper.

On the plus side, you cannot have too much James Caan.

It’s not an unqualified success, but it’s got moments. New York (mostly Manhattan, with some outer-borough beachfront thrown in at the end) is the real star of the film, and she’s beautiful. I’d recommend it for fans of the City, and maybe as a matinee for people who are partial to shorts.