Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

Filmed to perfection by the great Christopher Doyle and others.

The New York Times by Manohla Dargis

Like Hitchcock, Mr. Wong is at once a voyeur and fetishist par excellence.

Premiere by Glenn Kenny

I'm glad that 2046 is different from "Mood" even while being strangely of a piece with it. Like "Mood," it’s a movie of utter wonder and ravishment. But the key here is different.

Boston Globe by Ty Burr

The new film lives up to expectations and, indeed, pushes past them into virtually unmapped territory.

San Francisco Chronicle by G. Allen Johnson

A rare, sumptuous movie treat.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker

The result is rich, lush -- simply exquisite.

Austin Chronicle by Kimberley Jones

A riot of sight and sound that, however baffling, has an irresistible, elemental pull.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

There are many places a visitor may go astray in 2046 -- places where the filmmaker appears to be a bit at loose ends too. Still, Wong's invitation -- ''Let's get lost'' -- is irresistible.

Portland Oregonian by Shawn Levy

One of those undeniably beautiful things. The film is, in fact, an encyclopedia of beauty -- the beauty of desire, the beauty of nostalgia, the beauty of music and clothing and smoke and pain, and, chiefly, the beauty of women.

Village Voice by Michael Atkinson

Mood is everything, trumped up by a score so rich with pop songs, bossa nova drama, and symphonic mournfulness it's almost a movie on its own. 2046 may be a Chinese box of style geysers and earnest meta-irony, but that should not suggest there aren't bleeding humans at the center of it.

L.A. Weekly by Scott Foundas

The result is a film chilly and externalized in all the ways that Mood was bottled up and woozily dreamlike.

The A.V. Club by Keith Phipps

Just as memorable and emotionally intense as any of Wong's films. It's a mood as much as a movie.

Newsweek by David Ansen

In this gorgeously melancholic fresco of love affairs, Tony Leung Chiu Wai plays a womanizing pulp-fiction writer in '60s Hong Kong.

Time by Richard Corliss

Even if a Chinese movie doesn't sound like your idea of summer fun, give 2046 a chance. Its pearly artistry and gorgeous faces should put you quickly, deeply, in the mood for love.

Film Threat

The fascinating visuals and performances by Leung and the assortment of actresses like Gong, Zhang Ziyi and Maggie Cheung ensure that the film is still worth watching.

Variety by Derek Elley

The overall effect simply underlines the central weakness of the pic: that the neo-kitschy futuristic scenes don't add much to the real-life '60s relationships.

The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt

Even the art house crowd will find the film off-putting not only because of its vagueness but because of its thoroughly unlikable characters.