My Blueberry Nights (The Miriam Collection) | DVD Review

Talk about lost in translation.

Wong Kar-Wai’s My Blueberry Nights transposes all the markers of his unique and celebrated style onto America, but turning the exotic eye to the West doesn’t seem to translate well.

A penchant for pretty things and pretty faces, mood over action, saturated, hazy, and glossy colours and tints, odd cuts, extensive use of slow and fast motion, skeletal storylines and explorations on the themes of loneliness and the passing of time—all Kar-Wai’s trademarks are present, even with the change in cinematographer (from Kar-Wai’s standby Christopher Doyle to Darius Khondji) and language. This does go to prove that the director is surely an auteur, but your night would be better spent with one of his earlier films such as Chungking Express or In the Mood for Love.

My Blueberry Nights follows Elizabeth (Norah Jones) in her journey to cross the street from her new ex-boyfriend’s
apartment to true love with the owner of the home-style café across the street, British expat Jeremy (Jude Law). Jeremy doles out blueberry pie for her, the only kind left untouched and unwanted on the counter; Elizabeth identifies with the pie and eats large quantities of it as an antidote to her break-up woes. Elizabeth finally finds love with her café Brit, but ends up taking a long picaresque detour across the country first.

The supporting cast of oddball characters she meets along the way is extremely strong, which works well with Jones’s unschooled acting skills. Rachel Weisz gives a short but impressive performance as an anti-southern belle from Memphis; her husband is played by Good Night, and Good Luck Oscar-nominee David Strathairn; Natalie Portman plays against type as a curly, Blonde, trashy and flashy poker player; Cat Power makes a cameo and supplies soundtrack filler along with Jones herself.

The opening film at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, My Blueberry Nights was generally disappointing for the critics there as well as after the festival. This seems to be a ‘hate it’ or ‘love it’ movie, scoring an average 2.1 out of 4 at Cannes and receiving similar marks elsewhere, while often receiving either extremely low or extremely high ratings that average out in the middle. The film did poorly at the box office regardless of its big name draws and considerable hype, making 95.6 per cent of its revenue outside of North America.


Making My Blueberry Nights
Kar-Wai, Law, Jones, Portman, Weisz and Strathairn discuss the process of working with Kar-Wai’s unique working style, such as having no set script during shooting. Kar-Wai explains the story is based on a short film he made several years earlier in Hong Kong. The series of interviews are interesting for fans of the director or the actors, and works as an ode to Kar-Wai; Jones gushes: “He makes movies like a jazz musician!”

Q&A with Director Wong Kar Wai
In this New York City Museum of the Moving Image interview Kar-Wai discusses how he constructs scripts and films, and specifically how he adopted a singer to a film and how he adapted to America. Of interest are his views on filmmaking. Kar-Wai espouses a flexible filmmaking style and an auteur theory of filmmaking, claiming that he sees all films as different chapters of the same book for each director.

The Theatrical trailer and Still galleries are also included.

Kar-Wai is a film student’s filmmaker, and this movie often feels like it is more open to film analysts than filmgoers. However it is incredibly romantic, visually stunning, and has its comic moments—such as when Law exasperatedly phones and writes every dive bar in Memphis to try and locate Elizabeth.

Movie rating – 3

Disc Rating – 4