Eyes Wide Shut (2007, DVD)

(Please note: this review was mostly written in 1999, though never before submitted to epinions. I've made a few changes and revisions, but a good deal of it comes from over three years ago (i.e. mention of Kubrick's 'recent' passing, etc.) Try not to hold it against me.)

For over two years now we've been hearing all about Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Rumors, mostly untrue, have abounded: Tom and Nicole are playing sex therapists, Tom shoots heroin and dons a dress, it's all one big group sex-fest. And wise man that he was, Kubrick let them talk. And now, sadly, Kubrick has passed on, leaving us with one final reminder (as if we needed one) as to his genius. He's not around to appreciate his marketing strategy (laid out carefully before his death). Want to get people into a movie theater opening weekend? Then give them a trailer with Tom and Nicole, naked and fondling each other while Chris Issak sings a haunting rendition of "Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing". Kubrick carefully witheld all information on plot, even managing to keep the casting somewhat of a secret. And we ate it up. This was no Episode I secrecy, where a soundtrack and book could tell any average person all they cared to know about the film a week in advance; infact Kubrick went so far as to withhold the 1920 novella that Eyes Wide Shut is based on from bookstores until the film's release. The film was a mystery to most anyone that ventured into the theatre on opening weekend. And many, many people did; the film enjoyed the biggest opening that a Kubrick film has ever received.

And, in the end, the film defies all expectation, dashes all rumors, and emerges as the most enigmatic and oddly engaging film of the summer.

The mammoth 18 month shooting time the film required seems somehow worth it as we watch the flickering images of Eyes Wide Shut unfold before us in spellbound admiration. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman both display more than respectable acting ability, especially Cruise, who plays the film's central character. Although he has been slammed for 'sleepwalking' through the review, this reviewer believes to be the whole point precisely. Kidman, after a few amazing scenes, is sadly left behind as Cruise's Dr. Hartford travels deep into the city's night. Still, her presence is constantly felt, since Hartford's sexual journey is instigated by her startling sexual confessions.

After attending an elegant party (beautifully lit and choreographed in true Kubrickian fashion), the couple return home, make love, smoke pot, and get to talking. The intimacy of these scenes is incredible, with Kubrick's camera catching the two in the midst of a stoned, yet thought-provoking conversation. Kidman's character admits to lusting after a military man, years earlier, confessing that she was willing to throw her life and family away, and give herself up to him for the night, if he so desired it. Though the act never took place, the mere thought of what could have happened plagues Dr. Hartford for the remainder of the film; he is able to imagine the event in his mind, and Kubrick inserts this vision for his audience in grainy black and white "flashbacks".

These disturbing visions and upsetting realizations of his wife's sexuality send him out on an odyessy of sorts; a quest to fulfill his own sexuality through the dark city streets of New York City. He meets with a prostitute, attends a costume party that winds up being an upscale, surreal orgy, and winds up returning home late that night after being chased from the party - his sexual desires still unfulfilled. He finds himself haunted by the "party" he attended, and makes many startling discoveries about where he had been, and who he had become in that one night. Or maybe he had been that way all along and was only now discovering it. Or maybe, just maybe, it is all a dream.

Kubrick tells this grand story with his usual masterful tracking shots, and brilliant cinematography. The scenes near the end of the film - wherein Hartford breaks down and tells his wife of his rather risque night "adventures" and what they've ultimately led him to - are absolutely startling in their raw honesty and reality. Kubrick leaves us with a final scene that raises more questions than it answers. And the final line of the film, and ultimately in Kubrick's illustrious cinematic career, is both shocking and oddly appropriate. The cinema has lost a master, and we are left to ponder what great films could have been had Stanley Kubrick not passed away so quickly earlier this year.

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And to those who still claim to dislike this film, it need only be noted, for your consideration, that the entire film is essentially a dream, hence Cruise's bland sleepwalking performance, the sex equals death motif, and the sense that New York City doesn't really look like New York City but rather appears to be what it would look like in a dream (a fact noted by Martin Scorsese when he named it as one of the top films of the decade). It's all there for a reason, and quite an intriguing one at that. Over the three years (and several viewings) since I wrote the above review, my admiration for this film has only grown. I can't really understand or relate to people who claim not to like this film, though I understand and recognize they exist. I'm not even the biggest Kubrick buff, but still this film just captures me, and has made it on my rather tough to crack watch-at-least-once-a-year list. If for some reason you have yet to see it, and have heard bad things about it (pacing, etc.), please give it a chance and decide for yourself. Conversely, if you saw it when it first came out, and found it to be bad or boring or what have you, give it another shot.

You might actually end up liking it.