Reviewed by Robert Hull
Stars Norah Jones, Natalie Portman, David Strathairn,
Hector Leguillow, Rachel Weisz, LaVita Brooks,
Nate Bynum, Jude Law
Written by Kar Wai Wong & Lawrence Block
Certification UK 12A
Runtime 111 minutes
Directed by Kar Wai Wong
Some confections just don’t work; think chicken with strawberries or perhaps ask an Italian about pineapple on a pizza. And often it doesn’t even matter about the skill of the chef, there’s simply no blend to be had. Sadly, and that’s a genuine sadness not just a neat precursor to the start of a sentence, My Blueberry Nights by Chinese director Kar Wai Wong leaves a dull taste on the palate.
Wong has served up a delectable selection to this point, many are the admirers of films such as 2046, In the Mood for Love (Fa yeung nin wa) and Chung King Express (Chung Hing sam lam). These movies displayed the director’s talent for creating an evocative atmosphere, teasing subtle and powerful performances from his lead actors and making his non-linear approach to storytelling seem like an adroit move.
My Blueberry Nights is his first foray into mainstream American filmmaking and he falls short of his previously high standards. Where the movie doesn’t work is in its attempt to pin a slight-ish story to a woozy, jazzy feel for cinematography and a bunch of performances that don’t add up to a satisfying whole.
Elizabeth (Norah Jones in her first major movie) visits Jeremy’s (Jude Law) diner looking for her boyfriend, or more accurately, looking to find her boyfriend with another girl. Elizabeth is struggling to understand love – and herself. Over the course of a few nights (and a few blueberry pies) she opens her heart to Jeremy – before then taking off on a road trip across the States. Her motives are never clearly defined; this is more a case of the journey itself being the destination.
On her travels she takes jobs in bars and diners, getting to observe up-close the way that couples play games with each other and how love gets messed up. These vignettes feature David Straitharn’s lost cop, Arnie and his supposed-floozy of a wife, Sue Lynne (Rachel Weisz); Leslie (Natalie Portman) an uber-confident gambler who’s masking big league insecurity and, of course, Jeremy, the diner owner who you think has all the answers but is as needing of love as anyone else.
Jones makes a nervous start to her acting career and you feel the film really teeters with her at the outset, while Law (think Daphne from Frasier in the butchering of a Manchester accent department) is all-too-simplistic a foil for her. Portman, and the ever-watchable Straitharn, lend some much-needed punch, but the movie just drifts along in as aimless a fashion as Elizabeth’s own road trip. Destination nowhere.