As well intentioned as its flurry of feelings and sentimental performances are, “Berlin, I Love You” isn’t given the space or the format to truly sail. It fails to build on political landscape or culture and instead tries to pull on the heartstrings of its audience with half-baked concepts.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck
Most anthology films give you the comfort of knowing that if you don't like one segment, another one will be following in just a few minutes. Berlin, I Love You perversely does the opposite. It makes you nervous that if you don't like one segment, which you surely won't, another mediocre-to-awful one will follow.
The New York Times by Glenn Kenny
Most of this movie, which is almost entirely in English, is taken up with tone-deaf humanist tales.
Berlin gives a good enough picture of its host city, delving into its complicated history and giving glimpses of its beauty. But few of the segments connect us to its inhabitants and visitors in any meaningful way.
Los Angeles Times by Michael Rechtshaffen
For every poignant keeper...there’s a clunker.
By and large, the film feels aimless and uninspired.
RogerEbert.com by Peter Sobczynski
To be honest, the film does not exactly make a convincing case for the idea of Berlin as a hub of passion, or really for its existence as a movie.
On a scale of one to four stars, any film with a bit part for Helen Mirren, no matter how small and insignificant, deserves at least one. But nothing else about Berlin, I Love You rates a single mention.
Wildly uneven, as I said earlier. But at least some good character actors got a nice German vacation out of it, and Berlin, I Love You is pretty enough to make you plan your own. Just avoid the bars, brothels and laundromats and you’ll be fine.