My Blueberry Nights (mini-review)
The movie starts out promising; during the first segment, it fits pretty comfortably with other Wan Kar Wai films except that Jude Law plays Tony Leung Chiu Wai and pails of steaming noodles are replaced by blueberry pie.
The plot goes downhill quickly, however, as we follow Norah Jones across the United States and the story gets decidedly more American. It becomes just another middling indie film with the look of a Wan Kar Wai film. That is to say, it maintains the beauty of 2046 or Kar Wai's segment in Eros while devolving into a mediocre story line.
I had the same problem with Constant Gardener, which was one of the most cinematographically beautiful films that I had ever seen but that bothered me with its LeCarre-esque plot (when it got to the credits, I discovered that it was based on a LeCarre novel). This pattern of excellent directors from outside of the United States making glossed-up English-language films that have the directors' trademark looks without the substance is rather troubling. Why can't they just make their own films?
The plot goes downhill quickly, however, as we follow Norah Jones across the United States and the story gets decidedly more American. It becomes just another middling indie film with the look of a Wan Kar Wai film. That is to say, it maintains the beauty of 2046 or Kar Wai's segment in Eros while devolving into a mediocre story line.
I had the same problem with Constant Gardener, which was one of the most cinematographically beautiful films that I had ever seen but that bothered me with its LeCarre-esque plot (when it got to the credits, I discovered that it was based on a LeCarre novel). This pattern of excellent directors from outside of the United States making glossed-up English-language films that have the directors' trademark looks without the substance is rather troubling. Why can't they just make their own films?
posted by Ryan at 3:47 PM
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