My Blueberry Nights

Director: Wong Kar Wai

My Blueberry Nights is the simple and beautiful love story of Lizzie and Jeremy. It does not rush you into a whirlwind romance of flashy smiles, twinkling eyes, huffs and puffs.  It takes you by the hand and leads you through the life of Lizzie and the insights she gets from people we would love to admonish.

Lizzie (Norah Jones) has just had her heart broken and Jeremy (Jude Law)...well he is serving his time in heartbreak hotel. Jeremy runs a patisserie and God knows what Lizzie does for a living.  No sparks fly when they meet; no stolen or lingering stares when they talk; no fumbling and jumbling with words as they talk.  Just one lights the other's cigarette and smokes into the cold New York night.  

Lizzie runs away and sends Jeremy postcards from wherever she is.  He is desperate to find her  but sits right there in New York while Lizzie bartends in Memphis.  Meanwhile Lizzie encounters certain people who heal the wound in her heart.  An alcoholic by night, a cop by day, Arnie (David Strathaim) and his temptress wife, Sue (Rachel Weisz) teach Lizzie that love burns out but the embers remain.

I have seen Rachel Weisz in The Mummy 1 & 2 and in The Constant Gardener where she plays an empowered gutsy woman.  However, her crass yet vulnerable character in My Blueberry Nights is phenomenal.  Most notable is the scene where she recounts to Lizzie her grief and the loss that she cannot understand.  I don't cry at English movies but this scene moved me.

Under the alias of Betty, Lizzie meets lady gambler Leslie (Natalie Portman) one fine dry Nevada night.  Leslie strikes a crazy deal with the simple little Betty who takes the bait and then embarks on a journey to "Sin City" Las Vegas.  (I must say the Jaguar is uber-sexy.  I can't blame Betty aka Lizzie for giving in.)  Through the long drive Leslie instructs innocent Betty on the harsh world yet fails to recognize her father's love for his daughter.  

All in all, the story comes full circle with a reconciled Lizzie and Jeremy 

re-uniting over a delectable blueberry pie.

Watching this cinematic delight, I could not help but say loud--

Ay, in the very temple of Delight 

    Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine, 

        Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue 

    Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine; 

His soul shall taste the sadness of her might, 

        And be among her cloudy trophies hung. 

--   John Keats

                     Ode to Melancholy