My interest in My Blueberry Nights stemmed from two things; 1) Natalie Portman is in it and she is … nice; 2) the title is killer, I love it and I wanted to learn more. Those two things are all I needed. I know several people will be drawn by director Wong Kar Wai, but my only other experience with him was 2046 and I was not a fan of that film. Others may be interested in the fact that it is singer Norah Jones’ acting debut. This film has a lot to look forward to, but the question remains, does it live up to any expectations?
The story is quite simple, Elizabeth (Jones) breaks up with her boyfriend and spills her story to Jeremy, the owner (Jude Law) of a small restaurant in New York. Over several days of getting to know one another Jeremy falls for Lizzy, but she has decided it is time to hit the road. The story follows her as she travels across the U.S. She experiences several jobs, meets a variety of people, writes the restaurant owner on occasion and tries to “find” herself. Boom, all wrapped up with a tidy little bow. The best part of the story is wondering whether or not Beth and Jeremy are going to end up getting together in the end, the rest of it just seems like filler.
Elizabeth’s experience with the messed up love story involving characters played by Rachel Weisz and David Strathairn are tedious at best. Weisz gives an awful performance and delivers one of the most mind-numbing speeches I have ever heard. Natalie Portman plays some hotshot outlaw poker brat who drives around in a Jag and talks with a Southern slang. As pretty as she may be this is not her finest acting hour either as you just wish someone would roll up with a six shooter and plant one square in her dome.
Unfortunately, this is the journey of My Blueberry Nights, a film that is absolutely gorgeous to look at and is certainly tolerable, but when it comes to an overall opinion you can’t help but focus more on the bad than the sliver of good. Norah Jones does decent in her acting debut and Jude Law continues to impress me as he has finally gotten away from the smarmy characters he played up until Closer, which is where he hit his acting stride.
It’s unfortunate this film wasn’t any better, I was really hoping for an April hit, but it seems the likelihood of that coming true is just about nil.
