Enjoy the scenery

My Blueberry Nights (M) 2½ stars Limited national release WONG Kar-wai is one of the most influential of all the Chinese directors but, while watching his first English-language film, My Blueberry Nights, I started wondering if the Chinese dialogue in, say, In the Mood for Love, was, if I could understand it, as sappy as the dialogue in his new film.

My Blueberry Nights

My Blueberry Nights (M) 2½ stars Limited national release WONG Kar-wai is one of the most influential of all the Chinese directors but, while watching his first English-language film, My Blueberry Nights, I started wondering if the Chinese dialogue in, say, In the Mood for Love, was, if I could understand it, as sappy as the dialogue in his new film.

Seemingly inspired by Wim Wenders, complete with a Ry Cooder score and a long drive out west into the desert, this is, like the best of Wong's Hong Kong films, gorgeous to look at (the cinematographer was Darius Khondji). But the narrative, such as it is, leaves a great deal to be desired.

Singer Norah Jones, making a reasonable stab at her first acting role, plays Elizabeth, a New Yorker who, after being thrown over by her long-time boyfriend, starts hanging out most nights at a cafe where Jeremy (Jude Law) provides her with helpings of blueberry pie and a sympathetic ear. After a while she takes off on a trip across America in search of something or other. First stop is Memphis, where she encounters a cop (David Strathairn) who still loves his ex (Rachel Weisz), and then in Nevada there's spaced-out gambler Leslie (Natalie Portman). Though the dialogue was co-written by crime writer Lawrence Block, it sounds contrived. And though the film is stunningly beautiful in an artificial kind of way, it never captures the romantic mood that pervaded the best of Wong's earlier films.