The Hong Kong director's efforts to transplant things to a distinctly American tableau fail. Prettily, but miserably.
Comment
04/18/08
My Blueberry Nights (2008)
49
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:115
Fresh:56
Rotten:59
Average Rating:5.5/10
Consensus: Though well filmed, My Blueberry Nights is a mixed bag of dedicated performers working with thin material.
Theatrical Release:22-02-2008
Synopsis: With his first English-language film, beloved Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai's touch loses none of the seductive luster and magic that made his Chinese films so popular. MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS... [More]
Starring: Norah Jones, Jude Law, David Strathairn, Natalie Portman
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
Reviews for My Blueberry Nights
Wong's beautiful frames, filled with windows, lights and colors and a dazzling array of sounds (from distant thunder to tinkling bracelets) establish his all-important mood
04/17/08
Ornamental details like cigarette smoking and messy handwriting keep the settings tight and constrictive. Still, there's awkward shakiness that's fortified with interjections of high-volume, often-distracting soundtrack.
04/17/08
"My Blueberry Nights" is perhaps the most deliriously entertaining thing that Wong has ever made, at least since the equally rapturous "Chungking Express."
04/17/08
This is a kind of storytelling I love, about moments captured in time, about the sensuality of image, about the overwhelming emotional assault of loving and living.
04/17/08
A star-driven pseudo-indie affair that will please neither celebrity worshipers nor cineastes.
04/17/08
I think there’s a lot of miscasting going on here.
04/14/08
Wai fills the void with pointless slow-mo shots while pushing his real talent to commit over-acting hara-kiri with syrupy drawls and nonsense perspectives
04/11/08
Like My Blueberry Nights, [Jones' Elizabeth] is a looker with depressingly little going on beneath her striking facade.
04/04/08
Mostly, My Blueberry Nights is irritating and plodding, saved only slightly by Law's lively performance.
04/04/08
I spent the whole 90 minutes in a state of bemused, vaguely pleasurable anticipation, always hoping for the next gorgeous image to come along and sweep me away.
04/04/08
Jones displays some acting chops, but the character she creates with Wong has all the personality of a museum tour guide.
04/04/08
In My Blueberry Nights, Wong Kar-wai and his cinematographer, Darius Khondji, make America look so pretty that you may have trouble recognizing it.
04/04/08
Top CriticAlternately precious and vapid, the movie attempts to wrest metaphors from a jar of house keys, and eternal verities from pastry. Slice the pie how you will, it's still half-baked.
04/04/08
The biggest problem is Wong's decision to cast Norah Jones as Elizabeth, a New Yorker who hits the road after a love affair goes bad. Jones, in her first movie, can't act. (There, I said it!)
04/04/08
Wong Kar Wai's dreamy film boasts strong performances but ultimately feels more like a wistful character study than a heartfelt romance.
04/04/08
Setting out a grandly romantic dish, Wong encourages us to indulge. And then he leaves us hungry for something more.
04/04/08
My Blueberry Nights should have played like a memory, but its hard-living, luckless losers are too beautiful to be believed.
04/04/08
Top CriticHong Kong auteur Wong Kar Wai has made some of the smartest, most moving and tactilely gorgeous tales of romantic dislocation ever put on film. His first American movie, My Blueberry Nights, is not one of those.
04/04/08
The Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai has an undeservedly high reputation as a master stylist. He's more like a master window dresser.
04/04/08
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