Reviews Jul 02 2008 @ 07:30 pm
REVIEW: My Blueberry Nights
Directed By: Wong Kar-wai
Written By: Wong Kar-wai & Lawrence Block
Starring: Norah Jones, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, David Strathairn, Natalie Portman
Running Time: 90 minutes
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material including violence, drinking and smoking
This review was originally published May 30th, 2008.
My Blueberry Nights approaches the viewer like an awkward lover, desperate to please but unsure of what to do. At times it is sensual and alluring, a delicious cinematic confection for the senses, but suddenly it becomes clumsy and inexperienced, placing its hands in all the wrong places and whispering words that induce giggling rather than titillation. You will either be enraptured with it in spite of its faults or you will be turned off completely by its graceless advances. I could only entertain the films fleeting charms for so long, however, before becoming irrevocably irritated with it.
Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai has always been something of an indie darling, his recent films In the Mood For Love and 2046 playing well to scores of grumpy critics in Cannes and Venice, as well as developing cultish followings among fans enamored with his sensual visual style and obtuse meditations on eroticism. My Blueberry Nights marks his English language debut as well as the debut of singer-songstress Norah Jones, and the words that came unbidden to my mind for both of them were “Don’t quit your day job.”
Jones plays Elizabeth, a jilted New Yorker who wanders into the same greasy spoon whenever her love life hits a pothole. Jeremy (Jude Law), the rakishly handsome proprietor of said greasy spoon, might be the reason for her repeat visits. Either that or the blueberry pie, which she eats copious helpings of at every opportunity. The two connect over their shared love of pastries, and the titular pie becomes a metaphor for their mutual loneliness and isolation. Law is effortlessly charming as always, but Jones’ performance pales miserably in comparison. Her delivery jerks and stumbles, and it’s difficult to tell if it’s the script, Kar-wai’s directing, or Jones’ acting chops that contribute to the painfully clunky opening ten minutes. It’s likely a combination of all three, and while the film improves over time, its initial face-plant is nearly impossible to recover from.
Natalie Portman lays on the accent as thick as Alabama molasses.
Elizabeth takes her leave of the starry eyed diner cook and embarks on a soul-searching road trip across a postcard-ian American landscape, touching down in Memphis and flirting with Las Vegas before returning to Jeremy’s blueberry stained lips in New York. The film employs a staccato vignette style, tying each sequence together with the loosest of narrative threads (for all intents and purposes you’re watching 3 separate short films rather than a cohesive full-length feature). Each location brings its own set of tragi-characters, with A-listers David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz, and Natalie Portman filling in opposite Jones’ everygirl. All are dealing with love and loss in some shape or form and each provides Elizabeth with afterschool life lessons. Jones’ acting mellows out and becomes tolerable throughout these latter acts, although this likely has more to do with her reduced role as a sounding board for the supporting characters than anything else.
And though I’ve harped quite a bit on Miss Jones, she isn’t the deal breaker that I’ve led you to believe. The real problem lies with the portrait of America that Kar-wai is painting, which lacks any semblance of realism. Of course, cinema exists to redefine reality, so my gripes have nothing to do with the fact that Kar-wai is reinterpreting American life, but rather with the lens through which he has chosen to reinterpret: the soap opera. My Blueberry Nights is what you would get if you took All My Children, added a top shelf cast, and upped the production values. Kar-wai has dipped his brush into a bucket of Melodrama and coated every single frame with liberal gobs of the stuff. You’ve got drunken barflies, pouting adulterers, and deathbed phone calls, portrayed with all the subtlety of a frying pan to the kisser. I desperately tried to hold on, but once Rachel Weisz entered Drunken Hissy Mode over her alcoholic husband’s suicide, all benefit of the doubt went out the window, and the rest of the film was one eye-rolling dollop of treacle after another.
For all my complaints, I have to admit that this image is absolutely gorgeous.
Cinematographer Darius Khondji (The City of Lost Children, Se7en), however, does beautiful work here, as always. The opening shot is of vanilla ice cream melting into warm blueberry pie, and the rest of the film retains the style and flavor of that quintessential slice of Americana. The characters are framed in soft, luscious light, with moody blues and reds and yellows infusing the diners and bars and casinos that they reside within, and Khondji’s work is almost worth the price of admission alone. Almost.
My experience with My Blueberry Nights reminded me most of Across the Universe, another film I tried equally hard to like. They’re both ambitious, they both contain swaths of cinematic beauty, they both try so very very hard to please you, and they both have legions of flaws. However, they also each contain a mysterious spark that can light a burning torch of ardent admiration within the right person. My Blueberry Nights felt more like being entombed inside a candy-coated version of Days of Our Lives than a delectable love affair, but your mileage may vary. She is an awkward lover, but perhaps she’ll light your fire.
on May 30 2008 @ 9:20 am 1. waywardjam said …
“Don’t quit your day job.”
Agree. I found this film lacking, partially due to Jones’s acting but definitely from the awkward storytelling. Natalie Portman saved it from insufferable, but that’s just me.
Great review.
on May 30 2008 @ 10:04 am 2. Evan Derrick said …
Thanks for dropping by, wayward.
You know, the story wasn’t a problem for me, as I knew going in it was going to be little vignettes. I just couldn’t take the melodrama. In ever comment I leave I keep repeating that word, but I just can’t come up with any other descriptor.
I found a definition for melodrama that reads thusly: “an unrealistic, pathos-filled, campy tale of romance or domestic situations with stereotypical characters (often including a central female character)”
Bingo. That says it all for me.
on May 30 2008 @ 10:58 am 3. Daniel said …
I can totally see where you’re coming from, Evan. You either get it or you don’t, and I don’t mean that in any intellectual or even emotional way. There are just some people who respond to some elements more than others. Like the laws of attraction. It probably makes sense that I also loved Across the Universe, which I didn’t even think about until you mentioned it.
That being said, I was very attracted to MBN. Its technical components (lighting, cinematography, soundtrack) enraptured me, and I was also drawn to Ms. Jones. I didn’t take much more from Rachel Weisz than you did, but I little surprised you don’t make more mention of Straitharn’s performance. Not a big deal, I realize it wouldn’t have saved anything for you anyway, but thought it would leave an impression.
Anyway, great writing.
on May 30 2008 @ 11:37 am 4. Craig Kennedy said …
Yeah, as you know I’m with Daniel on this one.
I can’t deny there was melodrama to spare, but somehow I could see true feeling inside of it. Similar in a way to one of those Douglas Sirk movies that are so soapy on the surface, but all the really interesting things are happening underneath.
Sometimes with movies, I have to work at them and there’s always a point, usually not to far in, where it either clicks or I end up rejecting it. If it clicks, everything after works like a charm, but if it doesn’t, every little flaw sticks out like a boil and the reasons I dislike the movie just start piling up. Reasons that wouldn’t bother me at all if the move had clicked.
It sounds like you had a similar experience. You tried damnit, but it never clicked and every little thing just rubbed you the wrong way.
Daniel’s comment about Straitharn’s performance is an important one. I was already in love with the movie by then, but though he was playing a cliche, I thought he delivered and really helped ground the film. Had the whole thing been this ephemeral mood piece, I’m not sure how well I would’ve liked it, but Straitharn provided the key to the emotional core.
Nevertheless, a well done review and I think it’s cool you sought out an alternative view point even if it didn’t convince you in the end.
on May 30 2008 @ 11:43 am 5. Daniel said …
Very well said about the precedent set at the beginning, Craig, which reminded me that I was going to agree with Evan about the first 10 minutes. I was a little confused, a little uncertain, but then something happened and I was like, “Hey. Wait a minute. This is actually kind of cool.” I’m speculating, but I think it might have been from the fight in the cafe onward. Between the established relationship and the grainy camera footage, I was in.
on May 30 2008 @ 1:19 pm 6. Evan Derrick said …
“Sometimes with movies, I have to work at them and there’s always a point, usually not to far in, where it either clicks or I end up rejecting it. If it clicks, everything after works like a charm, but if it doesn’t, every little flaw sticks out like a boil and the reasons I dislike the movie just start piling up. Reasons that wouldn’t bother me at all if the move had clicked.”
That is a wonderful point, quite astute. You’re right, something misfired at the beginning for me and everything began to rub me the wrong way. I loved the cinematography and the music was beautiful, but it didn’t reach out and rapture me to the next dimension like it did for y’all.
I think I was neutral on Stathairn, much like Portman. I didn’t dislike either of them, but because I was already in an overall funk with the film, their performances did not generate the kind of respect in me that they did in you. To be honest, I can barely remember Stathairn’s performance – the only things that stick out to me now are the flaws.
In a way, I’m jealous of you guys. I love, love, loved being on the ‘outside’ with Speed Racer, and I can see what both of you are saying in regards to this film, but all the trying in the world isn’t going to make me love MBN. At least not at this juncture.
And Craig, the tack I took in the review owed itself largely to your glowing praise of the film. I figured that if you found something to like, I couldn’t dogpile on the picture in good conscience. Reading over the review now, I still think it’s a bit too negative. It’s too easy to become petty and cynical when you review something you didn’t like, and that isn’t the kind of critic that I want to become.
on May 30 2008 @ 1:24 pm 7. Evan Derrick said …
Also, I love that image in the second picture I posted. I want to print it out and get it framed. Best. Movie. Kiss. Evar.
Odd, that, given my general dislike of the film.
on May 30 2008 @ 2:03 pm 8. Craig Kennedy said …
One of the great things about this Internet thing has been meeting other passionate people, listening to their take on things and trying to rethink certain movies I might have had a wildly different opinion on. Sometimes I reach another conclusion, other times I’m not convinced, but it’s a blast taking a movie as a springboard rather than a demarcation of right and wrong.
And yeah, that is an awesome picture. I used a version of it for the reviewing the reviewers post that I’d captured from the trailer.
I’m not sure exactly of the clicking point for me, but I knew I was hooked when the cover of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon came on. That song is rooted in certain feelings and a certain time of my life and it opened a whole other emotional door to the movie for me.
on Jun 01 2008 @ 11:52 pm 9. K. Bowen said …
I liked it. I think a lot of it has to do with how much you’re willing to surrender to it. And how much you choose to treat it metaphorically, or figuratively, or something like that.
on Jun 02 2008 @ 8:47 pm 10. Rick Olson said …
You know, I’ve really been looking forward to this film. Living in the wilds of Alabama as I do, I’ll have to wait until DVD-land. I am a real fan of Wong, and I’ve been sort of bemused that he’s all of a sudden become kind of critical persona-non-grata. It’s like too much exposure or something … for several Cannes cycles he was a golden-boy, and now he can’t get elected dog catcher.
Is it the old over-familiarity thing? Sort of like the Starbuck’s phenomenon, where success breeds contempt? Same old coffee, everybody suddenly hates it.
Fine review, Evan, I’m sorry you didn’t like it.
on Jun 04 2008 @ 7:18 am 11. Kristena said …
Bummer. I really want for Norah Jones to be successful, whatever she does.
Since you compared this to Across the Universe, I’m inclined to think that I just might like it. I watched Across the Universe for the third time last night and enjoyed it perhaps even more than the first time. Really. Even the creepy-weird psychedelic scenes that I skipped over upon second viewing. I loved it all.
Hmmm.
on Jun 06 2008 @ 10:29 pm 12. HallsyHatesU said …
“One of the great things about this Internet thing has been meeting other passionate people, listening to their take on things and trying to rethink certain movies I might have had a wildly different opinion on. Sometimes I reach another conclusion, other times I’m not convinced, but it’s a blast taking a movie as a springboard rather than a demarcation of right and wrong.”
From what I’ve seen, this site is very good for that. Other sites…not so much.
Anyway, I glossed over the review once I saw that it was going to be a thumbs down and went straight for the comments to see if anyone liked it. I’ve never seen any of his Korean flicks, but for some reason, this one has intrigued me ever since I heard about it, despite the critical reaction. I don’t know…something about the title made me curious and images like the ones above make me want to see it for myself.
I will check it out on DVD.
on Jul 03 2008 @ 10:33 pm 13. Cinexcellence said …
I think Jean Smart might have been a better choice for Natalia Portman’s role.
on Jul 15 2008 @ 3:58 am 14. SolShine7 said …
I can’t wait to see this one even though it didn’t get glowing reviews. Natalie Portman is a great actress so I’ll give it a try. And I’m really curious to see how Norah Jones did.