Review of Vanilla Sky (2001) by Stefano P — 20 Nov 2010

I have been waiting a long long time to see this film and I finally just got to see it today. I saw that Tom Cruise and Cameron Crowe were doing another film together and thought it would be great, then after seeing what it was going to be like I knew it was going to be a very complex film. So I was ready to give it my full attention.

First i'll start with what I think was the best overall thing about this film and that's Tom Cruise's very underrated performance, yes i've seen him play this character a few times but at the same time he was a different Tom Cruise and I haven't seen before. I really liked his facial expressions and reactions to things. Especially when he found what was real and what was a dream. His final expression he gave us at the end of the film really convinced me and put a lot of emotion into me. You can say that it's hard to have sympathy for his character becuase in a way it's his fault that he got into the car but still I found myself feeling very sorry for him, knowing that aprart of my life wasn't even real would leave me stunned as well.

Besides Cruise there was Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz. I really liked Cruz's character a lot she was probably my overall favorite character in the film, she knew how to make David act like David and always brought out the best in him no matter what was going on. Her final part at the end was just as good as Cruise's was. As for Diaz's character I found myself hating her all the way through. Every second she was screen you could tell she was stalker, weirdo, and crazy and someone you would never want to be with. She brought out the worst in David in almost every scene but as far acting goes for Diaz I'll say she did OK but nowhere near as good as Cruz.

I've always looked at Cameron Crowe as a great director especially after Almost Famous, and Jerry Macguire. The direction he took in this of course jumped around a lot and demanded every bit of your attention which I was willing to give it. He brought out a lot in Cruise to me as well and I was glad to know they had past experence with each other.

I see that this film didn't get the best reviews and I can see why but I felt different about it then what most people did. It does jump around and it has some unlikeable characters but for the most part I thought it had great performances, some nice twists and turns, and an ending that you will never forget. A good but not great film so I'll say if you haven't seen it you should see it. 80%.