Review of Eyes Wide Shut (1999) by Ryan W — 08 Dec 2013

Tom Cruise almost completely ruins this film. Gads, he's a lifeless clod to watch. The only time I find him believable is when he plays some kind of a psychopath or arrogant jackass. In this film he is not quite either of those, but he certainly plays the good natured, unobtrusively manipulative, brainless buffoon that indecisively wanders through life waiting for something to grab his attention (kind of seems like he's not acting, huh?). I have always respected Stanley Kubrick, so I will try and not judge him for choosing such an irritating person to play in his film.

The above comments aside, it's an probably one of, if not the most, pretentious of Kubrick's, but it's a much more watchable pretentious film than most. It's beautifully shot and on that merit alone I would not mind watching a second time to get a better grasp of it's ideas to be better able to talk about it with friends. It's certainly an intriguing film for Kubrick to end his career with, and the fact that it was released 12 years after his last film implies it was important to him. Those ideas alone make it a must see for film buffs. How good of a film is it? I really don't feel qualified to try an answer that one. The film has certainly been over analyzed, and the responses are so all over the board I feel like throwing a dart blindly at the target will give as good a response as any for a critical/cultural analysis.

All that aside my personal feelings on the film is that's a very interesting and worth watching. The camera work at times is utterly brilliant. I found the infamous orgy scenes are especially haunting and the fact that Tom Cruise's face is covered with a mask makes him so much more interesting to look at! I'm debating trying to get my wife to watch it with me so that afterwards we can talk about gender roles, which realy seems like the best way to watch it.