Rating  - Plot does not deliver
You would think with such a powerful cast..Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Norah Jones and Natalie Portman that there would be a script that could complement their talents. Norah Jones is a woman trying to find herself and goes cross country before discovering that what she wanted was where she left it in NYC. Jude Law does nothing more than smoke a few cigarettes, wipe bar tables and serve Blueberry pie. This movie drags along and has a predictable ending. There are much better rentals than this one. Definitely do not buy!! Have you ever watched a romantic comedy that did not make you laugh? I'll never try Blueberry pie again!!
Rating  - Neon Bright Infusion
There is much in Wong Kar-Wai's first all English production to admire, but the cast, the dialogue, and the translation of Asian aesthetics unto accent-dimmed performances is so pronounced we have no option but to enjoy the movie solely for its artistic merit while lamenting its prosaic shortcomings. The usual antics and brilliance of the director are all deployed to a whimsical effectiveness, if sometimes deliberately indulged. The usual close-ups and askance visual is present frame after frame, with opaque intrusions, slantwise peering, obstructed lavishness, and aided by the diner/pub setting the movie is infused with neon latency. In fact the plot is simple and very bleak. Action hardly ever takes place during the day, save for the occasional interlude which seems to be a way to mark as pronounced the comparative glare that the night offers. At times we have the camera slide its intensity along a bar or a table, stolidly stuck on a fork pricking through a slice of pie, or meandering about the outskirts of a bar, column after column, shadows crawling senselessly through a disorderly tension that seems innocent enough to hide behind the crevices of our visual. Overall the very Asian aesthetic quality of the camerawork tellingly foreshadows a candor that has us become voyeurs more so than spectators. In Asian culture it is best not to invade one's private space and here it is carried out to such beauty that it offers a sense of indiscreet respect.
Where the movie falters however is in its casting, of which some are excellent artists used in a middling unfortunate fashion. Jude Law and Natalie Portman are sensational actors but oddly cast in the drama. Their intensity is unique but too forceful for the narrative introspective layover. The graceful Norah Jones is very mediocre. She has promise but the flick rests too much on her inner turmoil to be successful since she cannot be the keystone of the narrative in a way to match the intensity and bravado of her colleagues. The story is very simple. Elizabeth is stuck on her boyfriend whose just broken-up with her. She will have to labor through her incredulousness and inability to let go. The diner's owner, played by Jude Law offers her a shoulder and an ear while terribly straining the poetic attitude of the atmosphere by introducing a dialogue that metaphor driven closes the doors it chances to open. In fact while observing the action from behind window panes or timidly joining the session while tip-toeing about a door left ajar we discover a tenuous delicacy of touch that is as fragile as Norah Jones' performance.
David Strathairn, cast as Arnie, the alcoholic policeman who cannot let go of his wife, strikes a rapport of morbid proportions with Lizzie. While on a lovelorn escapade to Memphis, Lizzie nurses her loss and begins to recover, but in the process as she learns to give up, somehow that same sense of absence transfers to Arnie who is separated from a wife who wants nothing to do with him. The perfection of his character study and depth only highlights the misses of the others, including Arnie's estranged wife Sue Lynne (Rachel Weisz). Arnie gives up on a night of madness and overglowing anger but determines to commit suicide. Enters Natalie Portman, a southern vixen with a penchant for gambling.
The neon-hued camerawork receives added sheen from a trip to Vegas on a brand new Jaguar, only to find out that the every win is also a loss. Ultimately that is the upshot of the narrative which is brightly demented by the braggadocio devil-may care sensibility of Leslie (Natalie Portman). The death of Leslie's father causes a reunion between Lizzie and the diner's proprietor Jeremy, who functions as the jar of sweets everyone is sure with due time Lizzie will find her way to. Time spent through glowing hues that distil an aura of hopeless references and tame performances that jarr all the more because uninspired while beset by the contrasting tenderness of the visual.
A movie worth watching, because of the addictive intensity provided by the camerawork of Darius Khondji, but the elegiac tone of a "Chungking Express" or "In the Mood for Love" is affected by the sobering vapidity of a plot that plays with the notion of loss and gain by using a maudlin dialogue and a cloyed, exhausted attempt at allegorizing by way of sappy, overburdened poetics.
Rating  - Visual Splendor for a Shuffled Plot and Script
Kar Wai Wong is as much a visual artist as a film director and his forté has always been making beautiful, multileveled images on a screen that is trying to see clearly the outlines of character development. Such is the case in his first English language film MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS, a creation he wrote (with Lawrence Block) as well as directed. While the 'story' boasts a cast of fine actors, the emphasis seems less on character delineation than on creating a cinematic stream of consciousness.
A New York Russian bakery/café is operated by immigrant Jeremy (Jude Law) and into this milieu comes the newly jilted Elizabeth (Norah Jones - who also provides much of he sound track singing for the film). She leaves her boyfriend's keys with Jeremy as a sign of resignation but continues to nightly check to see if her ex-boyfriend has shown up to claim them. This is the premise for the formation of a bond between Jeremy and Elizabeth, but without solidifying that bond, Elizabeth runs off to greener pastures. She settles in Tennessee where she finds work as both a waitress and a bar maid and meets the down and out alcoholic policeman Arlo (David Strathairn) who pines away for his tacky, gallivanting wife Sue Lynne (Rachel Weisz). Leaving that story piece unresolved, Elizabeth then moves to Las Vegas where she becomes friends with a young, loser gambler Leslie (Natalie Portman) who manages to waste Elizabeth's savings for a car on yet another misjudged gambling night. Through this cavalcade of losers Elizabeth continues to write postcards to Jeremy and the ending is blatantly predictable.
There are some moments of memorable dialog: 'Sometimes, even if you have the keys those doors still can't be opened. Can they? ' 'Even if the door is open, the person you're looking for may not be there'. But for the most part this is a visual feast for those who love Kar Wai Wong's genre. The plot is thin as is the dialogue and the actors work to make the most of the outlines of conversation that they embellish with their own spontaneous words. If it feels improvised to the viewer then the viewer has entered the realm of Kar Wai Wong. This is a film for art film lovers - it is very beautiful to watch! Grady Harp, July 08
Rating - An art film that feels just a little lost...
This is a story of a woman's journey across our country in hopes of finding herself, but this trip is laid out in such a way that the people she meets are the ones we find out more about. This premise makes it a spectator film when I was expecting a Norah Jones film.
I was reeled in immediately though, as the opening credits showed only a few names and the director (have always preferred the no intro rule some directors love). The first act makes you feel as if Jude Law is going to be our main character, but you slowly realize that the stage (and future settings) are being made for the "main" lady to enter for awhile, but eventually continue on her long journey. Jude plays a manager of a café/deli who lends his ear and blueberry desserts to a recently spurned female customer played by Norah Jones. She was very convincing and believable in this first role of hers; a captivating screen presence. Yet I felt robbed of seeing her portrayal depths as she became more of a bystander than a participant in most of the scenes. The supporting performances of Jude, David Straithairn, Rachel Weisz, Frankie Faisson, and Natalie Portman overshadowed Norah's screen time and lines.
The filming style is a montage of sped-up night imagery and slow pans from various angles on the same interior scenes. The fist 20 minutes in NY, followed by the next 35 in Memphis, then Arizona to Vegas are a great deal of chop editing and strange mood setting pans. Slow motion soundless shots intermixed with a constant variety of artsy night footage are sometimes only broken by a display of what day our lady is living, starting with day 1 through 300.
This film gets rave reviews and has a staunch support group that slams anyone who dislikes it. Understandably, I suppose, as Wong Kar Wai is very talented. Wong's 18 minute Q&A on the DVD and the 15 minute making-of docu help considerably on why this film exists. I would recommend this for a few of my art house customers, but not sure how else to categorize it or hand this to someone and say you will love it. Skip the trailer and DVD artwork as it gives away the end, but maybe that was the point.
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