Most critics like it, and the praise clusters on how it looks. Christopher Doyle’s photography of Buenos Aires draws admiration nearly everywhere, as does Wong Kar-wai’s loose, fragmented way of cutting, which several reviews say matches the couple’s on-again, off-again pattern. Tony Leung’s lead performance is singled out, and more than one critic finds the film wiser and more heartfelt than Wong’s earlier Hong Kong work, with the quieter, non-sexual friendship at its heart named as the emotional centre.
The spread is wide. Two of the nine reviews are plainly negative, and for related reasons: Empire calls it style over substance, with the imagery carrying viewers through erratic plotting and little emotional weight, and The Guardian finds the endless quarrels and the selfish central pair hard to sit with. Even some admirers concede the film is sour on love and claustrophobic. The argument is whether the beauty earns the misery.