"I don't know how the story had begun..." – Norah Jones starts to sing, and we don't need to wait for the new Wong Kar Wai movie anymore. How the story begun? Good question. I join Kar Wai, because I don't know either. Actually I think nobody knows. We just jump into some half worn story, but this isn't the only problem with the film...
I'm not going out too often watch a movie in the cinema. It's too expensive here (€ 9), so I save the occasion for those films which requires the big screen. I think Kar Wai deserves his price, you know, the colors, the soundtrack and the whole feeling (I'm not joking: I ate a blueberry muffin right before the screening too. No, I'm not sick:). And the recent one gives this values, I promise. But I have to say: nothing else. The story didn't start and doesn't go anywhere. I could say it is boring. Some kind of network narrative (those criss-cross paths with different stories which are going to meet) told in linear way, which hasn't got any aim or doesn't plant any interest or real feelings into you. Hey, it's not about a simple story (two people are searching for love: one stays one place – the another travels around to find). I really like those, but here it's just doesn't work. I found the word: weak. Especially weak from Kar Wai. I know, the expectations usually kill the amusement, but this film wouldn't be persuasive from Lajos Koltai neither (Ok, I went too far:))
The legend says that there was a misunderstanding between the director and Norah Jones. Kar Wai asked her to cooperate (writing and singing the soundtrack), and Jones thought that she can act in the film. That's the way how she entered the role. So what. She isn't a good actress. I mean she should have been much better under the hands of Kar Wai and front of the camera of
Darius Khondji (if you don't know him, pls check his oeuvre). The rest of the characters are really ok: Jude Law is getting better and better (I feel with him like I did with Hugh Grant), Rachel Weisz is still deadly beautiful, Natalie Portman officially grown up (but still looks like Weisz's small sister), and David Strathairn is one of my new favorites (wish he wouldn't participate of the A Tale of Two Sisters' raping... (original and remake).
But it's still not enough. If you are left by your girlfriend or boyfriend, maybe you will like it, but come on, this kind of aimless sentimentalism just doesn't work in other cases. It's not about that "there isn't meaning". I really don't search desperately the meaning (just look at my Inland Empire-entry), but I like if a film gives at least the minimum within its aimed genre.
If Kar Wai would like to save his reputation, then maybe he should move forward from his earlier well done sentimentalism into some other directions. I have a feeling he gave already what he had from this field... I hope he will, especially with the rumored remake of Welles' The Lady from Shanghai (featuring Nicole Kidman, olala).
I'm gonna watch that one for sure. In a cinema.
I recommend My Blueberry Nights only for the hardcore Kar Wai fans. Or wait: I recommend only those, who doesn't like him.
P.s.: I found this a few minutes ago (here). James Rocchi's words summarizes perfect what I tried to tell above:
"My Blueberry Nights may be a bit more interested in look than feel -- it conveys blue as a color far more effectively than it conveys blue as an emotional state."
5/10
I'm not going out too often watch a movie in the cinema. It's too expensive here (€ 9), so I save the occasion for those films which requires the big screen. I think Kar Wai deserves his price, you know, the colors, the soundtrack and the whole feeling (I'm not joking: I ate a blueberry muffin right before the screening too. No, I'm not sick:). And the recent one gives this values, I promise. But I have to say: nothing else. The story didn't start and doesn't go anywhere. I could say it is boring. Some kind of network narrative (those criss-cross paths with different stories which are going to meet) told in linear way, which hasn't got any aim or doesn't plant any interest or real feelings into you. Hey, it's not about a simple story (two people are searching for love: one stays one place – the another travels around to find). I really like those, but here it's just doesn't work. I found the word: weak. Especially weak from Kar Wai. I know, the expectations usually kill the amusement, but this film wouldn't be persuasive from Lajos Koltai neither (Ok, I went too far:))
The legend says that there was a misunderstanding between the director and Norah Jones. Kar Wai asked her to cooperate (writing and singing the soundtrack), and Jones thought that she can act in the film. That's the way how she entered the role. So what. She isn't a good actress. I mean she should have been much better under the hands of Kar Wai and front of the camera of
Darius Khondji (if you don't know him, pls check his oeuvre). The rest of the characters are really ok: Jude Law is getting better and better (I feel with him like I did with Hugh Grant), Rachel Weisz is still deadly beautiful, Natalie Portman officially grown up (but still looks like Weisz's small sister), and David Strathairn is one of my new favorites (wish he wouldn't participate of the A Tale of Two Sisters' raping... (original and remake).But it's still not enough. If you are left by your girlfriend or boyfriend, maybe you will like it, but come on, this kind of aimless sentimentalism just doesn't work in other cases. It's not about that "there isn't meaning". I really don't search desperately the meaning (just look at my Inland Empire-entry), but I like if a film gives at least the minimum within its aimed genre.
If Kar Wai would like to save his reputation, then maybe he should move forward from his earlier well done sentimentalism into some other directions. I have a feeling he gave already what he had from this field... I hope he will, especially with the rumored remake of Welles' The Lady from Shanghai (featuring Nicole Kidman, olala).
I'm gonna watch that one for sure. In a cinema.
I recommend My Blueberry Nights only for the hardcore Kar Wai fans. Or wait: I recommend only those, who doesn't like him.
P.s.: I found this a few minutes ago (here). James Rocchi's words summarizes perfect what I tried to tell above:
"My Blueberry Nights may be a bit more interested in look than feel -- it conveys blue as a color far more effectively than it conveys blue as an emotional state."
5/10
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