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My Blueberry Nights

Sexy but emotionally failing

By ROB NELSON | April 16, 2008

3.0 Stars

MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS: Wong Kar-wai isn’t in the mood these days.

Three years after 2046, Wong Kar-wai is not in love any more — and I for one am happy for him. Perfectionism can be exhausting for all involved. A mere 12 months in the making, the Hong Kong master’s willfully scattershot US debut wanders alongside forlorn waitress Elizabeth (Norah Jones) from New York to Memphis to Vegas, picking up disposable characters (David Strathairn, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz) in dives along the way. But as Wong said last year at Cannes, where the movie disappointed many, My Blueberry Nights is “not about a journey. It’s about distance. Somehow, something is missing.” The director’s heart? So even as Wong’s widescreen images (ice cream splashing a blueberry-pie slice!) are as sexy as usual, there’s a newly perverse poignancy to the movie’s emotional failures and downward mobility. Wong, whether for personal, economic, or spiritual reasons, isn’t in the mood these days. Maybe you know the feeling. 90 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Harvard Square + Embassy + suburbs

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MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS | April 16, 2008
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