Review of 2046 (2004) by Eric F — 10 Jul 2008

I'd consider myself an unusually patient moviegoer for someone of my age. Now, I don't mean to sound like a snob - I just recognize that my age group tends to gravitate more towards flashy gunfights or revolting sexual humor. I like films that are methodical with full fleshed characters... films that give you enough time to "soak it all in". That being said, this movie was so frustrating to me that I found myself getting bored and restless. I couldn't quite place why. A lot of the writing is very clever, and some of the visuals are absolutely beautiful... but simply put, I just couldn't care. The two hours went by in three or four.

Giving a plot synopsis of the film is no easy task. Really, it's a complete collage of a film. Characters come in and out, and everything always seems to be evolving. However, the focus of the film revolves around Tony Leung's (Chow Mo Wan) love life. "2046" is in reference to both the science fiction novel he is writing, and the hotel room in which his lovers stay. We see a lot of clips from the actual story he's writing, "2046", in which he uses characters representing people in his own life. The setting of the novel is a train with beautiful androids, and people head to 2046 to regain lost love.

This is a fascinating story that really provides some very interesting and clever observations. I very much enjoyed all the parallels from 2046 to Leung's romances. The whole story is obviously extremely metaphorical - however it never comes off as flat. It's not there for the sake of being smart and showing off, it's there to explore these avenues in the human psyche as it regards to love. The film is about loss, and attempts to move on after a relationship is over.

It should be noted that I haven't seen any of Kar Wai's previous works. This film is the third of a trilogy - and although this is really considered a stand alone picture, I do feel that the other films would of increased my enjoyment. I felt like the character development of Leung was skipped and we started right off from the second act - I never felt like I knew him, yet I know that his personality had probably already been explored in great depth in "In the Mood for Love". I definitely felt completely out of the loop, and that was a big reason that I didn't take a whole lot out of this film.

My favorite thing about the film was unquestionably Christopher Doyle's cinematography. Even when I was uninterested with where the story was going, it's impossible to deny the beauty of the film. It's one of those movies where you can take a snapshot of literally any frame in the movie and it wouldn't be out of place on your wall. It's absolutely beautiful and breath-taking, especially the scenes in 2046.

However, my problem with the cinematography and all the flashy direction and editing was that there wasn't much else going for it in terms of plot. This is again really baffling to me as this is a fascinating story. Something about it is so cold and uninteresting in the way it plays out. All the movie really evoked in me was a "mood", no real substance. I never felt anything, or was legitimately touched by the picture, but I certainly was focused on the visuals. In fact, near the end of the film I found myself forgetting to read the subtitles I was so frustrated and disconnected. This movie evolves at such a rapid pace that you always feel one step behind. It's a film that needed three hours to do it justice, but even two hours was asking too much of the viewer. I don't know exactly what that means, but I do know that something wasn't right for me.

I wouldn't necessarily call this movie pretentious, although a lot of it certainly is. We definitely get a sense of "art for art's sake" in some sequences, however to the movie's credit it does seem fairly aware of itself. It seems like a disjointed collage, but i'm not necessarily sure that Kar Wai would want it in any other way.

There's no reason that I shouldn't of liked this film, but I just really didn't. At times it was fascinating, but I spent the majority of the time trying to catch up - frustrated, and uninterested. This isn't a bad film by any means, but to me it was certainly a disappointment.