Review of Eyes Wide Shut (1999) by Ami I — 09 Dec 2010

Dr. Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) and his wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman), go to a Christmas party, given by one of his wealthy patients Victor Ziegler. Before going, Alice complains Bill is paying no attention to her appearance. At the party, Bill runs into an old friend, Nick Nightingale (Todd Field), who dropped out of medical school and now plays piano in a band for night clubs and parties. A Hungarian man tries to pick up Alice. Two young models try to take Bill off for a tryst telling him they are going to "where the rainbow ends". He is interrupted by an urgent call from his host, Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack), upstairs, who has been having sex with a young woman who has overdosed on a speedball. Ziegler asks Bill to keep the encounter confidential.

The following evening at home, Bill and his wife are smoking marijuana and she asks him if he had sex with the two girls. After Bill reassures her of his fidelity, she asks if he is ever jealous of men who are attracted to her. As the discussion gets heated, he states he thinks women are more faithful than men. She rebuts him by telling him of a recent sexual fantasy she had about a naval officer they encountered on a vacation.

Bill is just then called on a housecall, but is visibly disturbed by Alice's revelation. He has been called to the deathbed of the father of an old now-engaged female friend, who impulsively kisses him and tells him she loves him. He puts her off, and then takes a walk down the streets of New York. He meets a prostitute named Domino (Vinessa Shaw), and accepts her solicitation, going to her home. The encounter is awkward, but as they begin to kiss he is interrupted by a phone call from his wife, after which he calls off the encounter.

Bill goes to meet his friend Nick at the Sonata Cafe who tells him about the nightly goings-on of a wild group of revellers who engage in group sex. To gain admittance, one needs a costume and a mask. Bill drives late at night to a shop called "Rainbow Fashions" having been the doctor of the previous owner. He offers the new owner a generous amount of money to rent to him now. In the search for a costume, the owner catches his teenage daughter with two men and expresses outrage at their lack of sense of decency.

After obtaining the costume, Bill Harford drives out to a country mansion inside of which a quasi-religious but highly sexual ritual is taking place. One woman comes to Bill, takes him aside and warns him that he does not belong there. He then hooks up with another girl and in her company walks through a few rooms where people are having sex in an orgy. The first woman catches up with him and insists he is in terrible danger. Bill is then accosted by a masked porter who takes him to the main room where the masked, red-cloaked Master of Ceremonies confronts him with a question about a second password which Bill is unable to answer. The Master of Ceremonies insists that he "kindly remove his mask", then asks that he removes his clothes. The woman who tried to warn Bill now intervenes and insists that she be punished instead of him. As she is taken away, Bill asks what is going to happen to her. The Master cryptically replies her fate is sealed, and Bill is ejected from the mansion and warned not to tell anyone about what happened there.

Bill arrives home guilty and confused where his wife Alice is now awake and tells him of a troubling dream in which he and she were in a deserted city without their clothes. She felt frightened and ashamed while he went off to try to find some clothes. After he left, she felt better, finding herself in a beautiful garden. The naval officer emerged, stared at her, and the two of them began making love surrounded by many other couples doing the same.

The next morning, Bill goes the restaurant next door to the Sonata cafe in search of Nick Nightingale. After he locates his hotel, the desk clerk there tells Bill that a bruised and frightened Nick had checked out a hour earlier after returning with two large-looking men, not to be messed around with.

Bill first goes to return the costume where the proprietor, with his daughter by his side, states he can do other favors for Bill "and it needn't be a costume". Bill now returns to the mansion and is greeted at the gate by a man who hands him a note warning him to cease and desist his inquiries. After Bill returns home, he thinks about Alice's recounting of the scene while he watches her instruct her daughter in math.

That evening, Bill goes to the home of the prostitute with a gift. He is greeted by her roommate who tells him that Domino has just discovered she has HIV. Bill leaves and notices a well-dressed man is following him. He ducks into a nearby coffee shop and apparently loses his persuer. Here, Bill picks up a discarded newspaper with story of a beauty queen, named Mandy, who died of a drug overdose. She has the same name as the woman he treated at Ziegler's party. Intrigued, he pretends to be her doctor and examines her body at the morgue.

Afterwards, Ziegler summons Bill to his house, and tells him he knows of all the events of the past night and day. Ziegler was involved with the ritual orgy and his own position with the group has been jeopardized by Bill Harford's intrusion. Bill is now concerned with the death of Mandy Curran whom Ziegler has identified as the woman at the party who "sacrificed" herself to prevent Bill's "punishment". Ziegler insists this had nothing to do with her death which was the inevitable eventual overdose. Bill does not know if Ziegler is telling him the truth, but accepts it anyway.

When Bill returns home, he sees the mask he rented on his pillow next to his wife asleep. He breaks down in tears, and as Alice awakes, he decides to tell her the whole truth of the past two days. The next morning they go Christmas shopping. His wife muses that recent events don't define their life and they should be grateful they have survived and are still together and that she loves him. She then says they need to make love as soon as possible.