The Hong Kong maestro's first English-language feature packs a suitable cavalcade of big names, and, despite the departure of long-time cohort cinematographer Christopher Doyle, looks the part too with Darius Khondji (responsible for, amongst others, the spell-bindingly sumptuous La Cité des Enfants Perdus) a ready-made replacement.
It's less than the sum of its parts. Wong Kar-wai's recurring theme of relationships attempting to reconcile conflicting desires, that made Chungking Express or In the Mood for Love such ethereally captivating flights, is perhaps wearing thin by now. Alternatively, the director has simply lost focus in transferring his vision across a cultural divide that is nowhere near as wide as he might suppose. The actors have little to go on. Rachel Weisz and David Strathairn make a decent fist of what they've got to work with, whereas the actual leads of first-timer Norah Jones, the perennially painfully wooden Jude Law and lightweight Natalie Portman just seem lost. There's just about enough in the visual package and occasional turn of thought to make the entirety keep rolling, but it's by no means a filling meal.
5/10
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