My Blueberry Nights

movie review/analysis
by Gavin Miller

My Score: B
Wong Kar Wai is awesome. He's one of my favorite directors, and I just recently checked out his 2007 flick My Blueberry Nights. This is a good film, not a great one, not as good as Wong Kar Wai's best work, but still pretty good, and in my opinion, very underrated. My favorite Kar Wai film would probably be Chungking Express (In the Mood for Love is a close second!), that movie really is something special, and I think that My Blueberry Nights did a good job of recreating a similar atmosphere, unfortunately, at times My Blueberry Nights feels somewhat thinly written. Chungking's narrative embraced the lack of an in-depth story, and relied on pure style to carry it. Wong Kar Wai really pulled it of with that one, but in Blueberry Nights, there are some scenes where it feels a little forced. However, I do love the premise of Blueberry Nights. It is a very interesting story, and Norah Jones does a surprisingly decent job as the lead. Rachel Weisz is great, and Natalie Portman was also pretty good, though the accent seemed a bit unneeded. Jude Law's character was easily my favorite part of the film, he did a wonderful job. There is some fantastic imagery and beautiful cinematography here, and though the script is a little thin, and as this is Kar Wai's first English language film, the transition of style can seem a bit awkward at times, there's enough good here to save it, and make it a very good film. This is no masterpiece, but it's worth checking out, especially if your a Wong Kar Wai fan like myself.