Alternately precious and vapid, the movie attempts to wrest metaphors from a jar of house keys, and eternal verities from pastry. Slice the pie how you will, it's still half-baked.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
My Blueberry Nights may not quite be what fans of either Jones or Wong Kar-wai -- directing his first film in English -- are expecting. It's a late-night, lovelorn mood piece in a minor key, not complicated or convoluted, finally more confection than substance.
Often ponderous, sometimes pretentious and mostly clichéd, this contrived meditation on longing and loss feels like a missed opportunity.
All this is frustrating, as the picture contains a few grace notes that remind one what an acute filmmaker Wong can be.
Despite its flaws, the film has the same dreamy, romantic melancholy that distinguishes Wong's best films.
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
The director is chasing a mood here -- a mood, an atmosphere and feelings -- much as he did in "In the Mood for Love."
Village Voice by Michelle Orange
The disappointment here doesn't have much to do with Wong doing America--he's been doing America for years, even in Chinese--but with Wong doing Wong, and not up to his own standard.
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
Norah Jones, making her big-screen debut as a wistful wanderer, is a beautiful blank, and the fragments barely add up to a movie.
As much a trifle as its title suggests, My Blueberry Nights sees Hong Kong stylist Wong Kar Wai applying his characteristic visual and thematic doodles to a wispy story of lovelorn Yanks.
The biggest problem is Wong's decision to cast Norah Jones as Elizabeth, a New Yorker who hits the road after a love affair goes bad. Jones, in her first movie, can't act. (There, I said it!)