2046 film review

certificate_12A

2046

Few films of recent years have achieved such mythical status before their release as Wong Kar Wai's latest. The celebrated Hong Kong director hasn't made a film since 2000's arthouse smash In The Mood For Love, and he only let the Cannes Film Festival have his latest piece hours before it was scheduled to screen. The result was a standing ovation followed by subsequent tinkering with the film from the maestro, and now we can finally see what all the fuss was about. The end result is something of a let-down, undoubtedly due to the hype. While it's certainly extraordinary in parts, notably in its look, this is a work peopled with cold characters who may test the audience's patience to its limits.

Anyone familiar with the director's work will know his penchant for meditative explorations on the meaning of love. 2046 is a cinematic poem on the subject, full of often surreal flights of fancy. Tony Leung (a regular collaborator with Kar Wai) is Chow, a dandyish playboy and writer who relocates to Hong Kong from Singapore during the 60s and concentrates on two things: his writing and his incessant pursuit of the opposite sex. Residing in a down-at-heel hotel in room 2046, he courts all of the attractive women who come through its doors, among them the beautiful Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li and Maggie Chong. Some are new characters to him, others are familiar to us from past films (notably In The Mood For Love).

Chow's writing is the other lynchpin of the film, as he progresses on a novel called 2046. In this futuristic world, which is shown as a mix of Kubrick meeting Ridley Scott, Chow is a passenger on a train to the year 2046. The train appears to act as a metaphor for love and is filled with teasing robot-like women who may or may not steal our hero's heart.

Clearly not the average multiplex stuff, 2046 should appeal strongly to those seeking a fresh burst of arthouse fare. But even its biggest fans may scratch their heads as to its meaning. While it is certainly lavishly filmed, its narrative is far from straightforward. Leung is convincing as the confident but weak charmer, and the women he plays off all bring something fresh to their roles. But ultimately, they are all given types to play and it's difficult to warm to any of them. Stretching to a slow and rather dissatisfying climax, hindsight allows us to see that the ovation at Cannes was clearly a case of festival fever.

Paul Hurley