My Blueberry Nights 我的藍莓夜

You’d better like looking at Norah Jones’s face, because for almost two hours, you’ll be staring at it in dreamy closeup after closeup.

Jones, the best-selling chanteuse, makes her big-screen debut in Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai’s English-language “My Blueberry Nights.” The picture works best as a mood piece or a kind of visual poem. It’s Wong’s rapturous but postcard-thin ode to Jones and, to a lesser extent, America, where the action — or, more appropriately, non-action — unfolds.

Like many of Wong’s pictures, which include, most famously, “Days of Being Wild” and “In the Mood for Love,” “My Blueberry Nights” drips ennui-soaked atmosphere. The story concentrates as much on the silences and pauses in the dialogue and scenes as it does on any traditional character development.

Jones plays innocent-eyed Elizabeth, who has recently broken up with her boyfriend. She wanders the streets of New York City and ends up in a cafe owned by charmer Jeremy (Jude Law). The two strangers form an intense connection over a slice of blueberry pie — but that doesn’t stop Elizabeth from hitting the road the next day.

“I’m just going to go until I run out of places to go,” she explains.

Her travels take her first to Memphis, Tennessee, where she meets alcoholic Arnie (David Strathairn) and his seductive gal Sue Lynne (Rachel Weisz). Then Elizabeth ventures to Las Vegas, where she befriends wild child Leslie (Natalie Portman). Eventually, Elizabeth finds a moment of redemption.

The question of whether or not Jones can act remains unanswered, because “My Blueberry Nights” doesn’t require her to do anything more than stare off into the distance, something which, it must be granted, she looks good doing.

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 My Blueberry Nights 我的藍莓夜 
Jones, the best-selling chanteuse, makes her big-screen debut in Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai’s English-language “My Blueberry Nights.” The picture works best as a mood piece or a kind of visual poem. It’s Wong’s rapturous but postcard-thin ode to Jones and, to a lesser extent, America, where the action — or, more appropriately, non-action — unfolds.

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