Film Review: My Blueberry Nights

A previous version of this review appeared in the Horace Mann Record Vol. 105 Issue 30 (May 16, 2008).

It’s not quite summer yet; we haven’t yet been inundated by movies. Although there have been some excellent films so far this year (4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days and U2 3D come to mind), as well as a fair share of disappointments (e.g. Be Kind Rewind), one film stands out.

My Blueberry Nights, which opened in New York a few weeks ago, is Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar Wai’s first English-language film. It’s a road movie starring Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, and pop singer Norah Jones in her onscreen debut. Although in terms of plot the film is not particularly interesting, stylistically it’s no less captivating than the past films of Wong Kar Wai, who is known for ineffably gorgeous visuals. His films tend to be about outsiders and their idiosyncratic approaches to urban life. His inimitable style defies verbal description: just about every filmmaker in the world cowered in jealousy upon his or her first exposure to a Wong Kar Wai film.

Norah Jones plays Elizabeth, something of a vagabond who returns to a SoHo café night after night to see if a lost love has returned. In the process she connects with the café owner, Jeremy (Jude Law). Finally giving up, she sets out on a self-searching road trip across America. In Memphis, she takes multiple waitress jobs and gets entangled in a conflict between Sue Lynne (Rachel Weisz) and Arnie (David Strathairn), a cop who descends to alcoholism to distract himself from the reality that his wife Sue Lynne wants to divorce him. In Las Vegas, she encounters Leslie (Natalie Portman), a luckless gambler. They briefly become gambling and traveling companions.

Central to the film is the possibility (or impossibility) of rejuvenation, of overcoming addiction, old habits, and old versions of oneself. In the way that Arnie doesn’t stop drinking, Elizabeth doesn't change much on her odyssey. What she has accomplished, however, is what Wong Kar Wai has described as traversing a distance that, though physically very long, is tiny. Despite how far away she was from Jeremy (Jude Law), the closeness of the bond they formed over their nights of eating leftover blueberry pie hasn’t changed by the time she returns to New York.

Wong Kar Wai may have made quite the journey to the U.S., but, like his characters, he has emerged unfazed: he is very much the same filmmaker he was at home in Hong Kong. Known for his striking ability to evoke the mood of his locations, he makes a great effort here to give the film an authentic feel. He admits that he strongly wanted to make an all-American film; he didn't want it to be from a foreign perspective. Consequently, My Blueberry Nights may feel too low on substance and high on style, even for Wong’s standards. On the other hand, Wong has constructed here some of the most interesting and convincing relationships in his oeuvre to date. Finally being able to see this film nearly a year after its premiere at Cannes, I was joyous. It's like comfort food: easy to take in, but, even if isn't haute cuisine, soul-satisfying.