Natalie Portman Embraces the Dark Side

  Whether she likes it or not Natalie Portman will forever be associated with the Star Wars series. Much like Leonard Nimoy who resented his Vulcan alter ego so much that he wrote an autobiography in 1977 called "I Am Not Spock", she has tried to distance herself from her role as the wife of Darth Vader. Of course Nimoy later threw up the white flag and embraced his pointy eared legacy with his 1995 revised autobiography called "I Am Spock". This may be a course that Portman takes as well, but there are a number of steps between point A and point B.  On her road to eventual acceptance of her Naboo based character and a spot on the nerd convention circuit, she has taken a role as a struggling poker player in the new film "My Blueberry Nights".  In this movie Grammy award winner Nora Jones plays a woman who is suffering a broken heart, broken life, and keeps moving town to town, changing names and meeting new people. In Nevada she meets Leslie (Natalie Portman), a southern belle turned poker player who is barely treading water. Portman sports a short, spikey hairstyle, and a revealing wardrobe that seems to be out of place on her pixie-like figure. She pulls off the brash gambler in a credible manner, but her southern accent does need a little help.  There are no lightsabers, space battles, or Jedi masters in this film, so the Star Wars crowd probably will not like it. On the other hand, she has much better chemistry with Nora Jones than she ever had with Hayden Christensen. So that is something.  Overall it is a good human interest movie, and worth the eight dollars it will cost to see it.