Elizabeth (Norah Jones) dumps her boyfriend after café owner Jeremy (Jude Law) tells her that he was in his café with another girl. She stays there eating a blueberry pie as he talks about the bowl of forgotten keys. She returns several time finding comfort talking to Jeremy. One night, she walks away, leaves NYC and drifts to Memphis where she's waitressing. One of her customer is drunken cop Arnie Copeland (David Strathairn) whose wife Sue Lynne (Rachel Weisz) left him for a younger man. Elizabeth now calling herself Lizzie continues to write letters to Jeremy. Jeremy keeps trying to track her down. She finds herself as Beth waitressing in a Nevada casino. Leslie (Natalie Portman) is a busted gambler, and Beth stakes her in a game. Leslie is willing to give Beth her car if she loses or a third of her winnings.

Norah Jones is underwhelming in her performance. Her stone-faced acting is a blank in the middle of the screen. The problem is that she's not a minor character that can be hidden away. She's taking up valuable space and wasting it. All the other actors look like they're overacting just because of the bland acting from the other side. A minor problem is the slow motion blur sequences that scream trying-too-hard. Director Wong Kar Wai tries to present his cross country American vision but it's missing a beating heart. I imagine that this could be quite a compelling character in a lovely indie. Norah does make some wonderful music for the movie but it needs a real actor to play the character.