Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.

I like this one, and I don’t care what anyone else says about it. It’s a sweet little movie, a light little thing, and I’m curious to see if Capone liked it anymore than the general film press seems to:

Hey folks. Capone in Chicago here.

Sometimes when other critics come down hard on a movie, I'm either right there with them or at least I understand why people might not like a film. But with the latest bit of sumptuous filmmaking from Wong Kar Wai, I am truly baffled by some of the hateful criticism lobbed at this movie. Granted, the version being shown in the United States is about 15-20 minutes shorter than the version that played at Cannes last year and the version that played in virtually every other country in the world (gee, thanks, Weinstein Company), so perhaps in those missing minutes there is something so egregious that my fragile mind would have simply imploded with loathing. But I don't think so. MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS is filled with the kind of beautiful visions and actors that Wong has graced us with in the past (IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE; 2046; CHUNGKING EXPRESS).

It's the modest story of a New York woman named Elizabeth (singer Norah Jones) who is jilted by her lover and spends the next several weeks hoping to run into him at a diner run by Jude Law. The two form a strange and beautiful fondness for each other, and right when things look like they might click between them, she decides to travel the country in search of herself. Along the way, she continues to send Law postcards detailing her adventures. She lands a job as a waitress in a dive bar in Tennessee, where she meets a regular customer (David Strathairn) and his estranged wife (Rachel Weisz). In Nevada, she crosses paths with a professional and highly unlucky gambler (Natalie Portman). But we always get the sense that in the end she will return to her humble diner owner. There's no real drama in MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS, just a succession of interesting conversations, attractive performers and an underlying sense of loneliness and tragedy. Do we ever get a sense that she discovers the "real" her? Not especially, but I'm still glad I got to spend time with her and her acquaintances. The film draws us in through Jones' understated but still compelling acting. She seems utterly unaware of acting for the cameras, and this makes her seem very natural and genuine. But she pulls us in, and we are quite deeply wanting her to find herself and land where she will be most fulfilled.

MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS is far more simple and straight-forward than Wong's previous films. He's not trying as hard to push the overly dramatic melodrama on his audience, and the result is a more naturalistic, almost home-spun piece that I found very easy to settle into. And unlike Wong's earlier works, which always seem to focus on two people who do not belong together, here the couple clearly does. Then the director and co-writer (with pulp crime novelist Lawrence Block) spend most of the film ripping out our hearts by keeping this couple apart and having separate lives to become emotionally prepared for their reunion. This deceptive romantic sketch is loaded with longing and a deep heart, and I still reflect on its beauty weeks after I first saw it.

Capone