Blueberry Nights, like his other films, is drenched in the already famous Kar-Wai coating. Like many of his films, My Blueberry Nights includes trains and some fight scenes in bars and diners. Also there's the fast forwarding, providing for the energetic atmosphere. Already from the opening credits it's visually stunning, choosing to presents his viewers with a great close-up of something that looks like dripping ice cream or cake. It's a beautiful image and gives you a feeling of joy, realizing you're watching a real filmmaker. With songstress Norah Jones in the lead, his first American film is immediately rather daring. Never acted in a film before, it's a big task to all of a sudden be at the center of one, having to lead the audience through its depicted story. Surprisingly, Jones is a great find. With a great face, the camera already loves her, but her acting skills, are as good as her skills as a musician, or at least come close to it. She manages to make you forget she is Norah Jones, the mutiple Grammy award winning singer, and convinces you that for these couple of minutes she is Elizabeth, a struggling waitress who has some boyfriend trouble. Eating blueberry pie at her local diner is her only relief and the great company of Jeremy, played by Jude Law, puts a smile back on her face. Jones acts very natural and stands her own among the great cast, which beside Law also feature Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman and David Strathairn who are all superb. Portman is great as Leslie, gambling her money away and not wanting to admit she loves her father, but it are both Weisz and Strathairn who decide to give a masterclass in acting. Weisz is amazing and deserving of any award for acting out there. During a long take she shows she is one of the best and capable of playing a character which doesn't seem to bare any resemblance with how she is in real life at all. Strathairn is just as great, drinking his life away, not something you would expect from a cop. Both actors are what makes My Blueberry Nights worth while, apart from the visual beauty of the film that is. Overall the story is nice, but simple and sometimes a bit too easy. It's story doesn't feel that fresh and the characters aren't some we haven't already seen before. But for the most of it, it really works and people who love Wong Kar-Wai's earlier work will probably like this one as well. It's great eye candy and if you loved Norah Jones already you will come to love her even more. My Blueberry Nights is a nice roadmovie kind of film, with a young woman searching for answers at the center of it. It's not one of his best, but it's still good.What Is It About?
A young woman, Elizabeth, pours her heart out while eating blueberry pie with the diner's owner, Jeremy. The two start to meet up regularly, chatting the nights away
before she ends up leaving to go on a soul searching journey. Working in bars and diners to earn money to be able to one day buy a car she comes to meet some interesting people along the way from which she learns and who will add to the person she will end up becoming. Shaped by these characters, she tells about her travels through letters which she sends to Jeremy, who, in the meantime tries to get in contact with her. As the days pass by his urge to one day meet this woman again becomes stronger. It's up to Elizabeth, however, how long it will take before the two wil finally meet again.Final Verdict: ****
My Blueberry Nights is a solid film, which I more than enjoyed. At the ending it does become a bit dull, but once Elizabeth and Jeremy reunite it provides for the same atmosphere the film starts off with. Jones and Law have convincing chemistry and it's nice to see Jones try her hand at acting, which she really succeeds in very well. There's a shot at the end that includes a kiss that is filmed from the top looking down at the two characters which will make the romantics swoon in their seats. My Blueberry Nights beside the road movie aspect is a bit of a love story as well. The pace of the film is slow, but nice. It has some really cool dialogue and the characters are all played very well, making them richer than they probably looked on paper. Kar-Wai is a visual master and whereas My Blueberry Nights
could have fallen prey to being nothing more than a good looking film, without a nice plot and characters, it does provide the audience with more than just visual beauty. Though, not that original, the plot is nice and satisfying enough. A little cameo from Chan Marshall a.k.a Cat Power, makes My Blueberry Nights even greater for the music fans, who probably already felt a rush going through their stomach on hearing the first notes of her song The Greatest. The title of the song doesn't apply for My Blueberry Nights, but for me it does kind of for Wong Kar-Wai, who is one of the most interesting directors working right now, bringing real cinema to the screens. It's what makes the real directors great.
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