MY
BLUEBERRY NIGHTS
By TODD MCCARTHY
Variety, 5/16/07
 As
much a trifle as its title suggests, "My Blueberry Nights"
sees Hong Kong stylist Wong Kar Wai applying his characteristic
visual and thematic doodles to a whispy story of lovelorn Yanks.
With pop music sensation Norah Jones floating through the episodic
tale as a blank-page heroine striving to overcome the blues, beautifully
embroidered pic generates increased interest as it travels from
East to West and encounters Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman along
the way, but its ambition and accomplishment remain modest in the
extreme. B.O. hopes, at least Stateside, rest much more with romantically
inclined young fans of Jones than among Wong devotees.
"Blueberry" echoes the director's biggest hit, "In
the Mood for Love," in its moody melancholy, claustrophic settings
and highly decorative shooting style. But while the actors' dialogue
delivery is perfectly natural, the aphoristic philosophical nuggets
Wong favors sound banal and clunky in this context, leaving the
film thematically in the shallow end of the pool. Additionally,
the road movie potential of the film's second half feel significantly
under-realized.
Wong and his co-scenarist, crime novelist Lawrence Block, dig themselves
into a bit of a hole during a borderline contrived initial half-hour
devoted to the first-stage shock felt by Elizabeth (Jones) after
having been dumped by her two-timing boyfriend of five years. Beset
by hurt, Elizabeth consoles herself with latenight sweets feasts
provided by the obliging Jeremy (Jude Law), the instantly sympathetic
British proprietor of a Gotham café.
The establishment's cramped quarters are made to seem even moreso
by the shallow focus lensing, which places objects, window writing
and anything else Wong and cinematographer Darius Khondji can think
of between the actors and the camera, which customarily roves around
in search of decorous minutiae. As always, Wong is able to transform
anything within his field of vision into something worth looking
at, although, strangely, the intense close-ups of blueberry pie
and other desserts dripping with cream look more like gross anatomical
snapshots than anything you'd want to eat.
Jeremy's almost oversensitivity to Elizabeth's plight and his hyperactive
eagerness to please gets old pretty quickly. But interlude ends
in a hushed kiss --Jeremy can't resist the intimate possibilities
of removing some lingering cream from a sleeping Elizabeth's lips
with his own --that removes any doubts of his own interests and
sets up Elizabeth's subsequent casual postcard correspondence with
Jeremy from various spots on her future journey.
Working as a diner waitress by day and a barmaid by night in Memphis,
Elizabeth becomes a sounding board to alcoholic cop Arnie (David
Strathairn), who patronizes both establishments, and witness to
the death throes of his marriage to Sue Lynne (Rachel Weisz), a
faithless floozy who makes a point of flaunting her adultery, but
ultimately pours out (in a long single take impressively put over
by Weisz) her marital past and true feelings to Elizabeth.
Wong clearly delights in photographing Weisz in glamorized states
of sultry disarray, but this proves just a warm up for his treatment
of Natalie Portman, who pumps sass and energy into her portrait
of a young, frosted-haired gambler who takes Elizabeth, now working
as a Nevada casino waitress, for an emotional, financial and automotive
ride. Leslie, who learned everything she knows from her gambler
father, prides herself on her ability to read her opponents around
a poker table and decides Elizabeth has a lot to learn about not
taking people at face value. Predictably, the young women find they
have something to learn from one another.
After all the effort expended upon elaborating the interior scenes,
the film disappoints when it hits the great outdoors of the American
West. Frequently speeding up the action of the women tooling around
in Leslie's Jaguar convertible and allowing the scenery to flit
by fleetingly, Wong seems to take no interest at all in settings
that have provided great inspiration to many filmmakers. Reacting
accordingly, Elizabeth returns to New York for an innocuously romantic
wrap-up.
For all its insubstantiality, "My Blueberry Nights" does
provide some catnip allure that will be to some tastes. Best served
will be those willing and able to embrace the general void of Elizabeth's
character and place themselves within it. Jones proves agreeable
but bland company in the role; she's attractive, but lacks mystery,
emotional vitality and that something special behind the eyes. As
if to make up for this in their scenes together, Law starts off
in overdrive and only rarely downshifts; he's more effective when
he does so. Cult singer Chan Marshall has a tasty scene as Jeremy's
ex back for a quick visit.
Visual beauty is a given in Wong's films, as is the use of pop songs
and old standards, and nothing has changed on those counts here.A
A Weinstein Company release (in U.S.) of
a Block 2 Pictures/Jet Tone Films/StudioCanal presentation. (International
sales: StudioCanal, Paris). Produced by Jacky Pang Yee Wah. Executive
producer, Chan Ye Cheng. Directed by Wong Kar Wai. Screenplay, Wong,
Lawrence Block; story, Wong.
Elizabeth - Norah Jones
Jeremy - Jude Law
Arnie - David Strathairn
Sue Lynne - Rachel Weisz
Leslie - Natalie Portman
Katya - Chan Marshall |
