My Blueberry Nights

Aroview: Urban romantic Wong Kar-wai transposes the style and erstwhile longing of his Hong Kong mood pieces to the United States, with songbird Norah Jones embarking on an introspective road trip, post-breakup.

Exchanging written correspondence with a café owner (Law) in between various cross-country encounters (Strathairn, Weisz, Portman), Jones is not a particularly engaging lead, and the film is similarly aimless and uninspired in its (albeit pretty) direction. For fans of Wong, this will lack both the wooziness and momentum (as will as Christopher Doyle’s indispensible cinematography) of the director’s best work; newcomers, though, may find novelty value in its meshing of commercial and arthouse sensibilities.