REVIEW: My Blueberry Nights [2007]

Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 95 minutes
Release Date: December 22nd, 2007 (China) / April 4th, 2008 (USA)
Studio: Block 2 Pictures / The Weinstein Company
Director(s): Wong Kar-Wai
Writer(s): Wong Kar-Wai & Lawrence Block / Wong Kar-Wai (story)

I decided to take the longest way to cross the street.

I really need to start watching more films by Wong Kar-Wai. While I adored In the Mood for Love, I still haven’t found time to catch 2046. Instead, I chose to check out his English-language debut, My Blueberry Nights. It’s a fantastic film regardless of what people are saying. A road trip journey through the landscape of the soul to overcome that which did not work in life to accept that which does.

One may think the film is about the lead, played by singer Norah Jones, but they would be mistaken … sort of. Yes, she’s the central character and on this journey, but the people she meets along the way have their own inner catharses as well. Whether that view into their hearts ends with joy, tragedy, hope, or forgiveness, well, that’s for them to experience and decide. Not every story has a happy ending, but finding one more smile or one more person’s soul to look into to know that the world isn’t completely insane can help find a bittersweet one. Sometimes we need that reassurance before setting our bets and walking away from the table.

For an acting debut, I must give credit to Jones. She’s playing against some heavyweights bringing their A-games, yet she holds her own. More of a natural performance than trying to do anything flashy, Jones is the perfect vessel for us to walk around and meet the many characters she comes across. While as much about their stories as hers, she’s definitely the catalyst for everything. After all, this tale begins when she discovers her boyfriend has been cheating on her. Spilling her thoughts and emotions with a diner’s owner, (at the place her ex had his indiscretion exposed), she finds that she must get away to put her life back together. The bond between these two lost souls, however, has been forged and wherever this road takes her, she stays in touch via postcards written to the one person she believes can hear her voice.

Jones’ Lizzie is generally the cause of what happens to those around her. Touching the diner owner (a brilliant Jude Law who thankfully plays a Brit so his bad American accent wouldn’t ruin the part like Rachel Weisz’s fake southern drawl almost did) on a spiritual level in a way that will play a major part in his future confrontation with the one that got away, his set of keys lost in the jar above his bar for too many years. Giving a depressed drunk (David Strathairn truly steals the entire film with an absolutely fantastic performance) reason to believe that the world isn’t all bad as a shining beacon of light to bring him out of the funk he has been in since the woman he loved found she could no longer be with him.

And having the trust to lend cash to a woman (Natalie Portman in a role that you wouldn’t expect from her: very good, very funny, and, most of all, very real) in her element of high stakes Texas Hold’Em while also teaching her that there’s more to life than reading people and knowing their next move. It’s just too bad she didn’t learn it sooner, especially after the person who taught her to be a cynic gave her the gift of love through a FedEx package. Each person learned more about themselves just by using Lizzie as a mirror into their own psyche. They may not all finish for the better, but they still end with dignity and maybe a sliver of happiness that wasn’t there before she crossed their path.

While Norah Jones’ ability to let others craft their roles off of her is a big part of the success, one must also mention the director. WKW is a master of visuals and even his use of the gimmick of constantly looking through objects never grows old. Almost three-quarters of the movie is seen through windows, bakery shelf casings, bottles on a bar, security cameras, etc. Even his use of light is phenomenal—going from the dark exteriors and natural light of Law’s diner to the bright sunlight of a Memphis diner to the dim phosphorescence of a bar at night to the hazy, neon highlights of Vegas. Every frame is gorgeous.

His use of slow-motion at highly emotional moments and close-ups of shoes or pie meeting melted ice cream never detract from the big picture either. Never afraid of askew compositions, we’re shown some nice positioning of the camera and cropping of the frame. It’s all done with the greatest care, subtly and effectively enhancing the words and actions of the actors. With a payoff that’s expected from the first moment of the film, it’s still the perfect conclusion to Lizzie’s trek through America and her soul. You can’t help but smile once the credits begin to roll.