Berlin, I Love You

The 'I Love You City' series of movies started off with such a bang with the first film "Paris I Love You" in 2016, but has been a rather major disappointment ever since.

"Berlin, I Love You" - the fourth in the franchise - is based in the city of the title and as usual boasts an impressive lineup of talent in front and behind the camera. But that alone is not enough to stop this two-hour movie being uneven and rather ragged around the edges.

It is, in part, a travelogue to show off contemporary Berlin, but some of the short films in this compilation could have been shot anywhere. Like the embarrassing and rather awkward hotel bar pick-up scene that has a surprising turn of events for Jim (Mickey Rourke).

One of two best episodes by far features Keira Knightly, who plays a worker in a refugee camp and who takes home a young Middle Eastern boy. This greatly upsets her mother (Helen Mirren), who would prefer her daughter to be living a conventional life and married with children. The presence of the boy in their home makes both of them reevaluate their own relationship in a city that is changing to face the demands of the day.

The second story is one of four women in a Berlin laundromat who have a #MeToo moment when they team up to embarrass a film director who has been accused of sexual assault.

Although it could have been filmed anywhere, there is also a touching story of a 16-year-old boy hanging around on his birthday waiting for his father to pick him up when he encounters a drag queen (Diego Luna) dressed to the nines - and he asks to be kissed for the very first time.

In the other shorts, Jim Sturgess plays a photographer whose discovery of the people of the city brings him back from a brink; Luke Wilson portrays a visiting American businessman who gets smitten with a puppet theater performer in the park; and street performer Sara (Rafa�lle Cohen) falls for Damiel (Robert Stadlober), complete with angels wings.

However, collectively, all the vignettes fail to paint anything like a clear picture of what the city is really like. This may be a love letter to Berlin, but the city may never even realize it.

"Berlin, I Love You"
Blu-ray / DVD Combination
$12.99
https://www.shoplionsgate.com/dept/media?cp=100807_102439