Review of 2046 (2004) by Judith N — 28 Jan 2009

Very beautiful, as to be expected from a Wong Kar Wai film. At its best, it's emotionally affecting and languid, luxuriating in its rich details of time and place and submerged desire; at its worst it's very very slow, and somewhat removed in its own storytelling device of a novel within a story within a non-linear chronology.

Despite Tony Leung's usual great performance, Zhang Zi Yi is the one who shines in this - just so brilliant, she breaks my heart. The other actresses don't fare so well - they're all very beautiful (Gong Li, Carina Lau, Faye Wong) but for most intents and purposes they're also rather depthless and annoying (particularly Faye Wong's blank look and her parrotted lines which made me want to throttle her, gah).

Overall, it's just too long and too artificial, and would probably have been a much better movie with some heavy chopping and editing.