My Blueberry Nights

A young woman, getting over a relationship, travels across America to earn money and see the country.

I found this to be hypnotic, soothing experience, much like In The Mood For Love. It really does set up an atmosphere that makes you feel like you're really there. I think it's a pretty hollow film, which has turned a lot of people off, but i think there's enough there on the surface. I think the film looked great - the colors and charming set design. Jones was pretty decent, Kar Wai wisely filling the film with interesting characters/actors so she doesn't have to carry the whole film. Natalie Portman seems a little miscast (she looks barely a day over 20 so i don't know why she plays characters out of her depth), but i found Strathairn and Rachel Weisz heartbreaking and Law hasn't been so appealing in years. A nice surprise considering my low expectations.

Wong is one of our three greatest living filmmakers.

He has transformed imagination for a planet. When real histories are written, artists like this will be appreciated for what they begin, giants compared to politicians who can only try to end things.

His last four films were transformative. Now he tries something outside his realm of mastery.

Like his main character, he has decided to travel the US in search of love. Also like his main character, he doesn't care about the story, only the afterglow. Its the mood that matters. In his previous films, he literally works without a script, creating an obvious vacuum where the story would be.

Here, he simply adopts a story that is so vacuous it leaves a similar hole. With a lesser artist, you would actually pay attention to the story and wonder about it. I suggest you simply ignore it, providing it with no more semiotic weight than the doorknobs which are so carefully photographed.

The idea here is simple: he finds a woman who by herself evokes a mood. He's done this before, and found creatures whose screen presence melts boundaries between stones allowing transparent slipperage. In this case, its Norah Jones, who does have a charm. His key image is of her drunk asleep on a diner counter with crumbs of delicious pastry on her full lips.

The way he's chosen to carry her image is through her songs, which contain a deceptive tension of confident tentativeness. This is a woman who is intensely unsettled and so is settled in herself. Jude Law plays a sort of urban domestic who prepares and waits, simply waits and draws her back.

In between the crumbs and the kiss are adventures with two women played by Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman. They are placed as outer bounds on two sides so that our character's stone can slip home. One is remorsefully constrained by neediness, the other guiltily unconstrained. Both lose men, but not our heroine.

Christopher Doyle is not present on this, and its obvious that it is part of the risk Wong is taking: new country, new language, new mode for moodiness, new crew altogether. Different sorts of lingering and saturation.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

This was a smart sweet movie. Very nicely done with some beautiful scenes! Majestic pictures really. And it had a nice story and some good characters with great performances specially by Rachel Weisz and Strathairn! It had good witty dialogs and had some funny moments. It's one of those movies that has everything to be good. Never Amazing, never something out of this world, but good! Makes you feel good after wards! But because of the editing and the great shots, this movie could have been far better than the average sweet smart movie.

The main reason why it's just good is because of the lead actress which was Norah Jones. And I'm very sorry to say she didn't convince me at all. It even became annoying at some points! And since she is narrating some bits and appearing in most of the movie.. it kinda ruined it a bit for me. It's really hard to comprehend why she was given the part. But if you can forget about her acting.. I think the movie is really good.

Somebody said Wong Kar Wai's "My Blueberry Nights" is a poor imitation of his own prior works. I think it's half true. Although its smell and taste are awfully familiar, but, to me, those feeling always linger to your memory longer than any ordinary film just the same.

The film opens with Elizabeth (Norah Jones in her film debut) wandering into Jeremy's (Jude Law) coffee shop. On her side, she's just breaking up with her boyfriend. She's angry and exhausting. On his side, he's lonely and has heartache past. And he secretly fell in love with her. After one unforgettable night they had share, suddenly she decided to go for a road trip (to find "the meaning of life"). She met a lot of individual people who somehow exchange their emotion with her.

She met Arnie (David Strathairn), a cop who can't cope with a separation with his super sexy ex-wife Sue Lynne (Rachel Weisz). She met a gambler, Leslie (Natalie Portman) who get used to lie to everybody including herself. Not until the truth is finally catch up with her. In the mean time, Jeremy is trying to locate her. He really wanted to find her and repeat that unforgettable night for the rest of his life.

After I watched first 10 minutes of the film, I wasn't so sure that is it the right choice to cast Norah as the lead. But after that, it got better (maybe it's because she looked calmer and decided to be a good listener). But the best acting in this film belongs to David Strathairn who plays this heartbreaking character so well that I wish I could do something for him.

This is Wong Kar Wai's first English-language film. For those who love "Chungking Express", "Days of Being Wild" or even "In the Mood for Love" might found this is rather disappointing. his usual trademark to produce dreamy atmosphere and create such a subtle narrative seems a little bit too obvious (and tacky). Without Christopher Doyle's collaboration, Darius Khondji's cinematography seems a little bit pale by comparison.

Disappointing doesn't necessary means bad. "My Blueberry Nights" is a good film created by one of the greatest director-poet living today. If you happens to know him only for this movie, lucky for you. Because you will find yourself completely falling in love for the first time with those amazing works he has created once you watch them.

The film is all about mood. If you are not in it, you will not like the movie. My recommendation is to watch it at night, in bed, with no worries on your mind or things to do. It is not something really great, but it soothes the soul like one of those old road books.

The story itself is more of a three parter, each section detailing a mindset and the situations that define it. You see the hopeless romantic, the one person who let the other inside instead of just sticking to the outside, and for whom losing the other is worst than death; then there is the rebellious daughter that loves and hates her father until it's to late to do anything either way; and of course, the story of Nora Joneses and Jude Law's characters.

Bottom line: lay comfy in your bed and listen to the slow rhythms of the music while digesting the human nature presented in the film. In the end it is worth watching.