MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS
Starring Norah Jones, Jude Law. Written by Wong Kar-wai, Lawrence Block. Directed by Wong Kar-wai. (PG) 95 min. Opens May 9.
Though tightened considerably since its Cannes debut last year, the first English-language feature by Hong Kong’s master of romantic languor isn’t really any more substantial or satisfying. Wispy, pretty but terminally vague, it feels as if a gust of wind could blow My Blueberry Nights to smithereens.
That said, Wong Kar-wai’s most ardent admirers (myself among them) can still find a few moments worth swooning over. Like so many foreign filmmakers, Wong can’t resist the allure of all those wide-open American roads. The heroine of My Blueberry Nights, Elizabeth (Norah Jones) heals her broken heart by travelling across the US of A as a Ry Cooder score unfurls on the soundtrack. While her café owner friend Jeremy (Jude Law) pines for her back in NYC, Elizabeth encounters a viciously acrimonious couple in Memphis (played by David Strathairn and Rachel Weisz) and a lady gambler in Vegas (Natalie Portman with an Annie Oakley accent).
Jones’ fellow chanteuse Chan “Cat Power” Marshall also shows up as Jeremy’s ex-lover. She makes more of an impression in her few moments than the wan Jones does in the whole film. Her scene proves the director’s forte for illuminating the dark corners of the human heart. But with its excessive use of slow-mo, banal dialogue and less-cool-than-usual musical choices (Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness” will forever belong to Pretty In Pink), My Blueberry Nights doesn’t so much feel like a Wong Kar-wai movie as a WKW impression by a variably talented UCLA film student.