MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS (**) - Starring Norah Jones, Jude Law, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman.
Directed by Wong Kar Wai.
There is some beauty in this otherwise pointless tale about the drifting aspects of love. Actually, "tale" is too generous a word. It's more like a series of vignettes that don't really add up.
Norah Jones is forgettable in her acting debut. I'd rank her somewhere between Damages' Rose Byrne and 24's Reiko Aylesworth. In other words, Jones would probably do better on TV. On the big screen, especially opposite people like, you know, the rest of the cast listed up there, she doesn't stand up.
Wong Kar Wai is great with images and thoughtful moments. But in this story, where a waitress meets a guy in New York, falls in love, sees him with another woman, then moves from town to town trying to get over him, nothing seems to be building to anything. It's like three episodes of one of those TV shows where the main character keeps moving on, like The Fugitive or The Incredible Hulk.
I found Portman miscast. She plays a poker pro, made to look like a 40-year-old, to which I say, why not cast an actual 40-year-old?
The piece that stuck out most for me was with David Strathairn (Good Night and Good Luck, The Spiderwick Chronicles) as a man who can't quite give up drinking, or his ex-wife.
In my book, it's a pretty-looking, sometimes-interesting misfire.
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