My Blueberry Nights

Feb 22 2008 Evening Chronicle

BITTERSWEET like the fruit of its title, Wong Kar Wai’s meandering love story is notable as the first English language feature from the acclaimed Chinese director of Chungking Express and In The Mood For Love.

The film also marks the big screen debut for Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter Norah Jones, who delivers an assured performance that suggests a rosy future.

My Blueberry Nights is slow-baked, with many of the same themes as Kar Wai’s earlier pictures: the impossibility of enduring love, our predisposition to self-destruction, the devastating power of unspoken desire.

However, this new film is light and airy in comparison, and lacks the subtlety and nuances we have come to expect.

The second half – a protracted road trip – begins in first gear and stays there, slowing to a halt in New York for a gooey romantic flashback.

When her boyfriend of two years throws in the towel on their relationship, Elizabeth (Jones) seeks comfort in a slice of blueberry pie served at the cafe run by Brit Jeremy (Law).

The connection between the two strangers is immediate, but it is not strong enough to stop Elizabeth embarking on a journey of self-discovery, maintaining contact with the cafe owner via a series of postcards.

On her travels, Elizabeth works in a bar and a diner in Memphis, where she grows close to a cop called Arnie (Strathairn), who still loves his adulterous wife Sue Lynne (Weisz).

Moving on to Nevada, the heroine serves drinks in a casino where Leslie (Portman) persuades Elizabeth to part with her savings in a high stakes poker game. While back in New York, Jeremy pines for his beautiful customer.

My Blueberry Nights is a good 15-20 minutes too long, some of which could be excised from the opening chapter in New York.

The Memphis segment is blessed by strong performances from Strathairn and Weisz, the latter bringing depth to her vindictive wife when she tearfully confides: “All I wanted was for him to let go of me and now that he has, it hurts more than anything in the whole wide world.”

Visually, the film is arresting, albeit with Darius Khondji replacing Kar Wai’s usual collaborator Christopher Doyle as director of photography.

The soundtrack sways and swoons and, surprisingly perhaps, Jones contributes just one song, the melancholic Story.

(12A, 95 mins) Drama/Romance. Norah Jones, Jude Law, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman. Director: Wong Kar Wai.

SWEARING; NO SEX; VIOLENCE