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My Blueberry Nights

My Blueberry Nights
3/5
22nd FebruaryNora Jones makes her big screen debut in this indie road trip movie directed by China’s Wong Kar-wai, also making his debut in American cinema. She’s soulful, beautiful and unassuming, but unfortunately not much more, except maybe quieter – never a good sign for a singer. Sadly for Jones, she’s starring in a film with a wide variety of consistently superb secondary characters. David Strathairn (Good Night and Good Luck) is back with a poignant bang, while Natalie Portman is her usual versatile and flawless self. Even Jude Law is watchable, despite his decidedly unsteady attempt at a Manchester accent, and when Rachel Weisz walks into a room, she sets it on fire.The fact that Wong co-wrote the film may have something to do with the script discrepancies – apparently no one explained that what might sound great in a Chinese proverb sounds dangerously like verbal diarrhoea in English. Then there’s the inconclusive plot, with its disjointed narratives that aren’t quite short enough to be episodes, and aren’t quite coherent enough to form a single storyline. The aforementioned acting is one redeeming feature; the cinematography is another. The America of Wong’s imagination is the America of the half-forgotten road trip, of Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train and Percy Adlon’s Baghdad Cafe, and though it may not be relevant, it is captivatingly beautiful at times.The bright colours and intensely personal close-ups are reminiscent of a ‘coffee table’ book of arty photographs, while the movement and flickering light seem to reveal the mind’s registering of detail rather than the camera’s glare. It’s all topped off with Ry Cooder’s brilliant soundtrack, full of funky double bass and soulful songbirds – possibly the film’s greatest strength.My Blueberry Nights leaves one with a feeling of limbo, and the idea that people can’t live with or without each other, forever on the move, but it’s definitely worth a peek if you can forgive its minor faults and major quirks.

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