Review of Eyes Wide Shut (1999) by Victor T — 07 Aug 2015

It has been twelve years after the release of Kubrick´s last film -due to the cancelation of "Aryan Papers" and his progress in "AI"- but in 1999 Kubrick died thus making "Eyes Wide Shut" his last completed film and possibly the most polarizing one for both critics and audiences. Is "Eyes Wide Shut" a worthy conclusion for Kubrick's career?

Dr William Harford is a man married to Alice, a gorgeous looking woman. Both of them attract the attention of the opposite sex but they claim to never be jealous of each other. One day, Alice admits to have a fantasy with another men thus making Will jealous. Will decides to sleep with other woman as a payback but this journey will lead him to places that no one wants to be in.

As a humongous Kubrick fan, I can admit that his latter career, consisting from "Barry Lyndon" to "Eyes Wide Shut" (an even "A.I."), is weak compared to his golden years and its pretty uneven due to their experimental directing. "Eyes Wide Shut" counts with solid performances (for most of the time, I thought Cruise actually was believable and out of his narcissist persona), a story that's extremely exotic to say the least, but it is thought provoking and engaging; the themes are extremely bizarre and not ones that aren't handled often in movies (due to their NC-17 nature) but they are fascinating, this beautifully crafted dream state atmosphere that goes from fantasies to nightmares, the cinematography is as gorgeous as you would expect from Kubrick but it is also his most experimental as it is blurry and colorful due to the atmosphere crafting , unforgettable imagery (no, I am not talking about the nudity), the character´s are ambiguous, Kubrick´s directing is arguably his most personal (is right up there with "Lolita"), and the score is haunting. The biggest issues that I have with this film are the second half. After the nightmarish sequence, the film establishes this suspense vibe but it is resolved extremely quickly, and some things that were established in the first half go nowhere thus making them an unnecessary addition (similar to "Full Metal Jacket"). It also should be addressed the misogynist argument, due to the fact every women on screen is a sexual object, but that's the point of the sexual themes and it is there as it is whole film is a male sex dream that goes from fantasy to nightmare.

"Eyes Wide Shut" is more than worthy conclusion for the career of one of the most influential filmmakers of all time, as it is beautiful, thought provoking and bizarre psychological drama. It isn't one of Kubrick's greatest films (certainly is his most bizarrely thematic one) and is pretty uneven, but it still powerful, memorable and striking. Not for everyone (as most of Kubrick's work).