Wong Kar-Wai is the highly praised Hong Kong director championed by the likes of Quentin Tarantino, the major European film festivals and holds a legendary like status in Asia itself. Wong’s “Chunking Express” is one of my personal favorite movies of all-time and turned me on to other films from that region. Wong Kar-Wai has also deftly shown the ability to cross many borders (gay, indie, romanticsm, sci-fiction, action) and always came out as a man able to do no wrong … that is until “My Blueberry Nights’”.

In “My Blueberry Nights”, Elizabeth (Norah Jones) suspects that her long-time boyfriend has been dating other women. She walks into a late night dinner, run by Jeremy (Jude Law), and asks him if he’s seen her boyfriend with other women in his diner. Jeremy confirms Elizabeth’s suspicions and she sinks into complete despair. Elizabeth starts to frequent Jeremy’s dinner regularly, coming in during the early morning hours when the dinner is about to close. Jeremy doesn’t mind Elizabeth’s company and in fact seems to take interest in Elizabeths innocence and naiveté. But, before their relationship can develop further, Elizabeth suddenly disappears completely. A few months later Jeremy starts to receive postcards from Elizabeth and discovers that she has taken a road trip across the U.S. without any final destination in mind.

Elizabeth first stops in Memphis and works two jobs: by day a waitress at a diner and by night a bartender in a dive bar. She becomes friends with an alcoholic patron and learns of his troubled past. Elizabeth then moves on to other cities, finally arriving in Las Vegas after crossing paths with a feisty poker player (Natalie Portman). Meanwhile, Jeremy still hopes to find Elizabeth one day, while Elizabeth hopes to find her true self.

While, the film is tolerable in a pedestrian way, when compared with Wong’s other films, “My Blueberry Nights” seriously underwhelms and underdelivers. I would guess the biggest obstacle for Wong in making “My Blueberry Nights” would have been the language barrier. Probably not able to discern the stiff dialog used in the movie, the tricks used in his film “Chunking Express” and used again in “My Blueberry” comes across as surprisingly artificial and forced this time around.

Casting was misguided at best, with singer Norah Jones selected for the starring role as Elizabeth. Norah Jones is certainly a wonderfully gifted singer, but her acting chops are nowhere near as memorable. Stuck with a perpetual dewey-eyed gaze that looked all too plasticine and never genuine enough, it was difficult at times to watch her deliver those stiff lines. This became even more apparent when the effervescent Natalie Portman appeared alongside the wooden Norah Jones. Wong Kar-Wai was able to take Chinese pop-singer Faye Wong to another level in “Chunking Express”, but no such luck was had with Norah Jones in “My Blueberry Nights”.

Music was another big element of “Chunking Express” with the Mama and the Papa’s “California Dreaming” repeatedly played in that film and each successive appearance giving the song a more mystical or grand stature in that movie. In “My Blueberry Nights”, Wong Kar-Wai uses Cat Power’s “The Greatest” in a similar manner, but Cat Powers “The Greatest” is never able to conjure similar emotions. Timing is all important as they say and in “My Blueberry Nights” Wong Kar-Wai made the unfortunate decision to blare out the moody “The Greatest” immediately, rather than waiting for a more appropriate time later in the film. This gave the song’s appearance a TV commercial like feel and emptying whatever emotional impact that song may have had later in the film.

Also, like “Chunking Express”, where Takeshi Kaneshiro’s character displayed a charming quirkiness (Pineapples, expiration date, May etc), this time around Jude Law’s character holds a similar quirkiness, specifically with the bowl of keys that he kept in his diner. For myself, the keys seemed contrived and lacked any of the genuine quirkiness displayed with Kaneshiro’s character in “Chunking Express”. When Jude Law explained his reasons for holding those keys in that jar, (at least in my mind) it seemed like a brick dropped in the cinema and then their was silence.