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Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
I'm not going to get into any in-depth psychological rationale about whether what happens to Cruise in the film is real or imaginary because I choose to accept it all as real. That makes the film scarier and more significant as a possibly-serious film about the complexity of marriage and open relationships. Cruise can't handle that his wife (Nicole Kidman) finds other men attractive and/or fun, and she can even have a Citizen Kane-type memory, albeit far more erotic in nature, than the one about the girl with the parasol.
Cruise uses his wife's confession to go on a night-long odyssey, which involves death by old age, drugs and murder, pedophilia, secret organizations, humongous, otherworldly orgies and attacks from drunken, macho homophobic youths. His world is turned almost inside out and his wife and daughter are threatened. This is all in exchange of Cruise trying to somehow payback his wife for her "non-infidelity", and even Cruise doesn't actually get laid, but he comes a lot closer than she ever did.
I have to admit that the film is slowly paced, but as it moves along, it builds suspense and becomes much more compelling and hypnotic. It has one of the most attractive female casts I can remember. Sydney Pollack is especially good playing a character who knows far more than Cruise and the audience do. I probably have a lot more to say about this film because I haven't really said anything, but I haven't watched this film in at least six years. I do own it though (I received it as a gift), so I will try to rewatch it so that I can make a more-compelling argument next time. For people who have actually seen it and didn't like it at all, I'd rewatch the orgy scene first because that is its own mini-movie and seems pretty unique in cinema to me. The music, camerawork and staging are spectacular, and it all builds to an almost Phantom of the Opera-ish crescendo with the removal of a mask. Really creepy stuff.
I'm not going to get into any in-depth psychological rationale about whether what happens to Cruise in the film is real or imaginary because I choose to accept it all as real. That makes the film scarier and more significant as a possibly-serious film about the complexity of marriage and open relationships. Cruise can't handle that his wife (Nicole Kidman) finds other men attractive and/or fun, and she can even have a Citizen Kane-type memory, albeit far more erotic in nature, than the one about the girl with the parasol.
Cruise uses his wife's confession to go on a night-long odyssey, which involves death by old age, drugs and murder, pedophilia, secret organizations, humongous, otherworldly orgies and attacks from drunken, macho homophobic youths. His world is turned almost inside out and his wife and daughter are threatened. This is all in exchange of Cruise trying to somehow payback his wife for her "non-infidelity", and even Cruise doesn't actually get laid, but he comes a lot closer than she ever did.
I have to admit that the film is slowly paced, but as it moves along, it builds suspense and becomes much more compelling and hypnotic. It has one of the most attractive female casts I can remember. Sydney Pollack is especially good playing a character who knows far more than Cruise and the audience do. I probably have a lot more to say about this film because I haven't really said anything, but I haven't watched this film in at least six years. I do own it though (I received it as a gift), so I will try to rewatch it so that I can make a more-compelling argument next time. For people who have actually seen it and didn't like it at all, I'd rewatch the orgy scene first because that is its own mini-movie and seems pretty unique in cinema to me. The music, camerawork and staging are spectacular, and it all builds to an almost Phantom of the Opera-ish crescendo with the removal of a mask. Really creepy stuff.