My Blueberry Nights

Category: Drama  |  Tags: drama

posted by: Edan Matssob 96 days ago          

In Hong Kong Auteur Wong Kar-Wai’s latest film, MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS, Elizabeth, played by singer NORAH JONES, has just been dumped by her boyfriend after a five year relationship and she takes time out at a New York café where she consumes lots of blueberry pie and meets the owner, Jeremy, (JUDE LAW).

After a while she takes off on a trip across the country. In Memphis she encounters a sad policeman, (DAVID STRATHAIRN), and his ex-wife, (RACHEL WEISZ).
And in Nevada there’s spaced-out gambler NATALIE PORTMAN.

Watching MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS, the first English-language film from Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai, you wonder if IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE would have seemed as corny as this is if you’d been able to understand the language.

Seemingly inspired by Wim Wenders, with its Ry Cooder score and its road trip format, MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS is both clichéd and trite.

It’s beautiful in an artificial kind of way. The cinematography is by the great Darius Khondji and Wong is always adept at making the mundane look gorgeous – and some, not all, of the songs are good, though I’m not a fan of Otis Redding’s version of “Try a Little Tenderness”.

The acting, too, isn’t bad at all. NORAH JONES has a presence which suggests she could make the transition from singer to actor, and DAVID STRATHAIRN and RACHEL WEISZ do what they can with their dialogue. WEISZ is especially impressive in one scene.

MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS was highly anticipated when it opened the Cannes Film Festival last year, but it’s quite a disappointment.