A man and a woman, each with distant spouses, form a friendship, burning with subtle romance, after they move in next to each other.In My Blueberry Nights, the only other Kar Wai Wong film that I have seen, there were so many ridiculously placed montages and shots in which the camera drifts from the banal to the
boring with nothing happening in between. There was a little of the same in In the Mood for Love, but I found the montages and slow camera movement more fitting with the film's attempt at subtle seductiveness. In the end, I don't think it works because such attempts at creating atmosphere instead of character simply don't fit my tastes, but at least his stylistic camerawork made more sense.I think your overall reaction to this film depends on how invested you become with these characters. They don't let each other in, and consequently, I felt just as distanced from them. By the end of the film, I didn't think I knew these people well. But structurally and from a filmmaking point of view, there isn't much missing. And if a story about characters letting down their guard, which is a response to social pressures, isn't the story they want to tell, then it shouldn't be forced about them.Overall, there are few other films that I think can be debated as vigorously as this one can. If you suggested it was sublime, I would have as little objection as I would to someone who suggested it was shit.
April 6, 2011
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