My Blueberry Nights (The Miriam Collection)
by Kar Wai Wong
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Actor: Chad R. Davis, Jude Law, Katya Blumenberg, Natalie Portman, Norah JonesDirector: Kar Wai Wong
Brand: Wellspring Media INC
Writer: Kar Wai Wong
Writer: Lawrence Block
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
Published: 2008-07-01
DVD Release Date: 2008-07-01
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: 81346
Studio: Weinstein Company
DVD Reviews of My Blueberry Nights (The Miriam Collection)
DVD Review: So what's wrong with the Blueberry Pie?
Summary: 3 Stars
My Blueberry Nights is like a short story, but, to make a short story long, the characters come alive and the story gets longer. Indeed, it was based on an earlier short film by Chinese Director Kar Wai Wong. Maybe he should be called Kar Wai (so) Wong? It was just a short story's worth of film stretched out to 89 minutes. But actually, if you can get through it without falling asleep, it is pretty good. Kar Wai Wong likes to work without a specific script and he relies on his actors to flesh it out with improvisation.
Since singer Norah Jones is no doubt familiar with improv, he chose her as the lead actress. She doesn't seem like such a great actor, but the role didn't call for much range. She is just sad and hopeful that some guy she met will come back, but you know nothing about him, and little else is revealed about her. She goes to a café and leaves some keys in a jar, and tells the café owner, Jeremy (Jude Law) to return them if he sees him again. She returns numerous times to the café, hoping for word about her man, but she also returns for the blueberry pie and conversation.
Elizabeth: So what's wrong with the Blueberry Pie?
Jeremy: There's nothing wrong with the Blueberry Pie, just people make other choices. You can't blame the Blueberry Pie, it's just... no one wants it.
Elizabeth: Wait! I want a piece.
It seems, however, that she is not the only one with keys in the jar, as Jeremy also does. So wrapped up is she in missing her man that she scarcely notices Jeremy, even as she derives tremendous comfort from the blueberry pie and the conversation. Eating blueberry pie and crying, one night she cries herself to sleep. There is vanilla ice cream on her lips, and then later there is none. Did Jeremy kiss her while she slept?
Elizabeth takes off on a journey of self discovery that leads her West from New York, first to Memphis, where she meets a policeman (David Strathairn) also broken hearted for his young wife Sue Lynne (Rachel Weisz). Their story is a little film-within-a-film, and it's a short story that really works.
Next she heads out to Vegas, or more like a small town that has a casino or two--a small town outside of Vegas. Baker? Harumph? No, not Harumph. While working as a waitress, she meets Leslie (Natalie Portman), a gambler with daddy issues. She needs a stake to get back in the game, and offers Lizzie either her car, an expensive Jag, or a third of her winnings if she comes out ahead. It seems like Leslie did not win. Leslie says that she will give her the car, but she needs a ride first. While on the road the hospital calls and says her father wants to talk to her, that he might be dying. For some reason not fully explained, she hates her father. He is a gambler and taught her how to play cards. He used to brag to his cronies that she thought that Jack came after ten.
Leslie: Sometimes your rhythm's off, you read the person right but still do the wrong thing.
Lizzie: Because you trust them?
Leslie: Because you can't even trust yourself.
Natalie does pretty well, but I've seen her do much better. Though she was having a bad hair day, there is a lot of chemistry between Lizzie and Leslie (not THAT much chemistry. Get your mind out of the gutter. Still, who came up with these names?). They just look like they are having a lot of fun together, two girls on the road.
All the while, Lizzie keeps sending postcards to Jeremy. He realizes that he misses her, maybe he loves her. The postcards never include a return address, but he calls and sends out cards to every café and diner in the towns her cards are sent from hoping the shotgun approach will find her.
Anyway, you get the idea. There are a lot of Norah haters out there, but she did OK. Kar Wai Wong really wanted her, and he built the movie around her. Her character wasn't a musician, and her dream, besides getting another slice of that blueberry pie, was just to buy a car. By making her character a mere waitress, they kind of left out the most interesting thing about her. I think that Norah Jones herself would make a better subject for a movie, and she could play herself. In it, a young girl sweeps The Grammies with a subtle blend of jazz and country, and backstage, for the first time, she meets her father, also a musician from India. Someone wanted to make that movie, but both father and daughter quashed it. Talk about daddy issues.
Norah wrote one song for the film, and Cat Power, also in a small part, did another. Other music was by Ry Cooder. My Blueberry Nights had very lush cinematography by Darius Khondji, with lots of night shots and neon lights. It was a subtle and nuanced film that didn't give in to cynicism. I wish I could give it more than 3 stars, but it was Norah's first film, and Kar Wai Wong's first film in English, so it was a good first try.
V for Vendetta (Widescreen Edition) (2005) .... Natalie Portman was Evey
The Constant Gardener (2005) .... Rachel Weisz was Tessa Quayle and she won Supporting Oscar
Closer (Superbit Edition) (2004) .... Natalie Portman was Alice and Jude Law was Dan
Cold Mountain (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) (2003) .... Natalie Portman was Sara and Jude Law was Inman
Come Away with Me (2002) Norah Jones' debut album swept The Grammies
Fa yeung nin wa (2000) .... directed by Kar Wai Wong
... aka In the Mood for Love (France) (Hong Kong: English title) (USA)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) .... Jude Law was Dickie Greenleaf
Gattaca (1997) .... Jude Law was Jerome Eugene Morrow
Beautiful Girls (1996) .... Natalie Portman was Marty
A Fei zheng chuan (1990) .... directed by Kar Wai Wong
... aka Days of Being Wild (Hong Kong: English title) (USA)
Leslie: You're hopeless...
Lizzie: You're hopeless too!
Description of My Blueberry Nights (The Miriam Collection)
Oscar® nominee* Jude Law (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain) and Grammy® Award-winning singer Norah Jones star in this "ravishing triumph... [of] pure romantic sensibility" (Armond White, New York Press). Law plays a big-hearted owner of a small New York diner who tries to soothe Jones' jilted heart with his blueberry pie. But only after going on a year-long cross-country odyssey does she realize love was right at her doorstep all along. Gorgeously filmed by award-winning director Wong Kar Wai (In The Mood For Love) and featuring Oscar® winner** Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) and Oscar® nominees*** Natalie Portman (Closer, Garden State) and David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck), My Blueberry Nights is an optimistic ode to love and "one of the best movies of the year!" (Andrew Sarris, New York Observer).Bob Dylan's song "Lovesick" could describe every film Wong Kar-Wai has made since 1988's As Tears Go By. My Blueberry Nights, his first English-language feature, continues the Hong Kong helmer's fixation with the concept. Grammy-winning vocalist Norah Jones plays downhearted New Yorker Elizabeth. When her boyfriend takes up with another woman, she drowns her sorrows in the hand-crafted pie served up by sympathetic café proprietor Jeremy (Jude Law in a charming turn). Lizzie appreciates the support, but decides her best plan of attack is to leave town, so she hops a bus to Memphis, where she waitresses while serving as a sounding board for alcoholic police officer Arnie (David Strathairn), who pines for estranged wife Sue Lynne (Rachel Weisz). Later, Lizzie tries her luck in Vegas, where she joins forces with professional poker player Leslie (a brassy Natalie Portman). During her journey, Lizzie sends Jeremy postcards; through her wistful words, he finds himself falling in love. With Ry Cooder's plaintive score (bolstered by tunes from Jones and special guest Chan "Cat Power" Marshall) and golden-hued camera work from Darius Khondji (replacing regular cinematographer Christopher Doyle), My Blueberry Nights reaches for the elegiac tone of Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas as much as Wong's own Chungking Express. It's an odd combination that doesn't always work--the banal dialogue isn't up to the director's usual standards--but lovesickness has rarely been rendered more vividly. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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