The Three Potatoes

23rd July 2008
My Blueberry Nights (2007)

(WARNING: If you intend to watch this film, do not read this review. If you do not intend to, or have already seen it, please proceed).

A young woman (Norah Jones) wanders into a diner, which is at the centre of her break up, and mulls over heartbreak and relationships with the owner (Jude Law) and a slice of blueberry pie.

Positives:

Initial concept sounds romantic and promising.
Jude Law did not play Jude Law. He was actually quite likable.
Norah Jones has a lovely song featured in the film.
I had extremely low expectations after reading lots of mediocre reviews.
The calibre of the four main actors (minus Norah Jones).
The soundtrack is really lovely.

Not So Positives:

Jones unfortunately did not have any acting experience. While the character is very low key, her performance lacked nuance, rise and fall. When a good actor is given something simple to work with, they can really draw it apart to find the flesh, create the texture. Portman would have delivered a world in a look, a tremor in a eyelid, a waltz in a breath.
The story is a rip off of Chungking Express. A poor man's American Chungking Express. Wong Kar Wai ripped off his own movie!
Wong Kar Wai ripped off his own music! Yumeji's Theme slowed down on harmonica is slanderous compared to the beautiful composition for In the Mood for Love.
Natalie Portman should have been given something juicier. Actually all the actors are capable of handling.
I find it sad to know that both Wong Kar Wai and Norah Jones do not like blueberry pie. It sits with you like a burden to watch them romanticise the pie when they didn't have the passion for it. Michel Gondry would have picked his or their favourite, or just gone into a cafe and picked a pie which had not sold a slice all day.
There was not a huge amount of growth with the character of Elizabeth (Jones). Her journey was supposed to be a big changing arc to bring her full circle, but she was too passive, an observer, who does not push herself to grow.
The cinematography in other Wong Kar Wai's films have slowed down moments to emphasise something. In Blueberry Nights it seemed it was done as a fancy, a whim, without carrying something significant.

Overall:

My Blueberry Nights is a poem of love and relationships and self but lacks the subtle layering and humour of a Wong Kar Wai film. If this was by any other director I would not have minded, but from the master himself making a poor facsimile of an earlier sublime creation, it only emphasises the difference. If he had tried another style of story, if Natalie Portman played the lead instead, if the script was more lively, it could have been a beautiful movie. There are a few really lovely scenes with Law who quietly glows as Jeremy. I feel that if all the pieces had been broken apart, shook around and put back together in another configuration, it could have worked better.