By Ray Bennett
CANNES — Singer Norah Jones (pictured) stars in Wong Kar Wai’s ruminative road picture “My Blueberry Nights,” which opens the Festival de Cannes today, and she makes a fine impression in her acting debut although she doesn’t sing.
The voice everyone will leave the picture thinking about is that of Chan Marshall, the gifted singer and songwriter from Georgia who leads the hot outfit Cat Power and the Memphis Rhythm Band.
Chinese director Wong’s first film in English is shot beautifully and it prompted warm applause at this morning’s press screening. It isn’t filled with music but there are some typically evocative guitar tracks from Ry Cooder and several songs by Marshall.
She also shows up briefly onscreen with Jude Law (pictured below) as a former lover in a sadly wry encounter. Composer Gustavo Santaolalla, who won Oscars for “Brokeback Mountain” and “Babel,” also displays his expert picking on one track and Cassandra Wilson does a great job on Neil Young’s plaintive “Harvest Moon.” The soundtrack album for the picture is due out on Jones’s label, Blue Note records.
Some early reviews of “My Blueberry Nights” have taken a steak knife to what’s really a pretty tasty dessert. I think Jones does well while Law, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman provide depth that’s not really in the script, which Wong wrote with crime novelist Lawrence Block.
Bland assessments of life might sound hardboiled in the right context but they melt away when delivered by wide-eyed young actors. Darius Khondji’s sumptuous cinematography, however, makes up for almost everything.
I’m inclined to agree with my colleague Kirk Honeycutt’s review in The Hollywood Reporter. Here’s how it starts:
“My Blueberry Nights” is a melancholy torch song in three-part harmony. In Wong Kar Wai’s English-language debut, the acclaimed Hong Kong-based filmmaker brings before his always-prowling camera three stories about addiction — addiction to alcohol, addiction to gambling and, most of all, addiction to love.
Nothing truly profound gets discovered, nor does this film mark a career breakthrough for Wong despite the shift in language and locale. The director is chasing a mood here — a mood, an atmosphere and feelings — much as he did in “In the Mood for Love,” which premiered at Cannes seven years ago.
