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My Blueberry Nights
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With the theatrical release of Wong Kar-Wai’s Ashes of Time Redux this week it is no surprise that many have written of that movie’s journey from black sheep of the director’s filmography to rediscovered masterpiece. Yet I believe the greater injustice done to the director was the lackadaisical reaction that many movie fans had to his first English language movie, My Blueberry Nights. Now I understand that many of the director’s supporters were looking for him to chart new territories, and it seems the director’s greatest fault was his very talent.
When the director finally presented My Blueberry Nights in this country he was shunned for making the type of movie that audience’s had praised him for making. We were treated to a mature and thoughtful work and we snickered at the fact that the director had cast big name stars like Norah Jones, Rachel Weisz, Jude Law, and Natalie Portman. Instead of showing his movie the respect it deserved, audiences turned their heads in disgust at the shots of American towns and buildings, not to mention the soundtrack. Everything that we believed was an asset in the director’s work was now a hindrance.
Many who will go and watch this movie must understand a very simple thing; and that is that My Blueberry Nights is not In The Mood For Love or 2046. I love both movies, but to really enjoy and get the most from My Blueberry Nights you must look at the work as a separate entity. It is a continuation and maturation of the themes that he tackled in In The Mood For Love and 2046, but he is using an American setting as backdrop for his story.
The movie starts simply enough with Elizabeth, played by Norah Jones, going into a coffee shop and handing her cheating boyfriend’s keys to the owner, Jude Law’s character. Eventually, like many Wong Kar-Wai protagonists Elizabeth decides to run away, believing that a simple change in location will free her from her heartbreak. Yet like all wounds; if left untreated it will soon fester and she meets person after person who have all medicated themselves from their emotional pain with alcohol and cheap thrills. I don’t know what Wong Kar-Wai’s next movie will be, but he does not disappoint with My Blueberry Nights.
Ashes of Time Redux is now playing in theaters in New York, and My Blueberry Nights is available on DVD.
