Eyes Wide Shut | | Cast : | Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman | | Director : | Stanley Kubrick | | Studio : | Warner Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | July 16, 1999 | | DVD Released Date : | June 03, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | NC-17 | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 10, 2005 | | Summary | The Garden of Bombastic Reviews. | Content
 | If Stanley Kubrick took a break from death to read some of the reviews here, I can only hope he'd slip into uncontrollable laughter. But then he'd have to pause. "Why," I suspect he'd ask, "do my films attract such empty barrels?"
Anyway, I hope I'm not one of them.
Eyes Wide Shut, I think, is a deceptively simple meditation on human honesty in the context of our dearest human institution ... marriage. Of course, much of the dishonesty in relationships centers around sexuality, and the conflict between the sexual roles imposed by the institution itself, and the far less clear lines that exists within each of us. And so, we round pegs shoved in the square holes of an artificial and ancient institution struggle to be both open and closed to each other.
In the marriage at the heart of this film, both husband and wife have their own, hidden fantasies, longings, disappointments, and wishes that don't fit neatly into what is expected of them. Nicole Kidman's character, in a moment of marijuana induced honesty, admits to having something less than an idealized fidelity to her husband ... that the mere glance of a stranger could destroy it all (and nearly did once). Of course, Cruise's character has secrets of his own, and Kidman's brutal and devastating disclosure plunges him into fugue state where his own conflicts of role and sexuality surface. Cruise's journey touches on many areas of the "forbidden" ... from homosexuality (the taunting of "roughs" leads him into the hands of a prostitute uncertain whether he belongs there) to a possible dalliance with a patient to a ritualistic orgy. Of course, much like his wife has owned her hidden side, he must, eventually, own his ... and he does.
A central metaphor here is the mask. And with his mask finally stripped free and sitting on his pillow, Cruise (never before wanting to remove his mask or costume) relents and tells all ... and we can only hope, by that point, that his relationship can survive transformed ... or not. It depends on who or what you are rooting for, as with any great film. Their is fodder for both points of view.
Eyes Wide Shut is a powerful searchlight into the psychology of sexuality and marriage, into truth and honesty, and into the question of who (and what) we really are. Don't be put off by the pedantic and lunatic silliness of many of the reviews you'll read. They're mainly by folks desperate to sound smart, to read more (and sometimes less) into the film than is really there. Eyes Wide Shut, thankfully, doesn't need their help. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 10, 2005 | | Summary | Eyes wide open - mouths closed shut | Content
| A lot of reviewers appear not to be looking too deeply at "Eyes Wide Shut" and that is a shame.
The thing I found most fascinating is the sinister element confronting the characters played by Tom and Nicole.
Tom's character, Dr Harfod breaches the security of a secret group at what appears to be a regular gathering of elitists (Illuminati?) engaged in an occult ritualistic pagan orgy.
Lots of symbolism.
Nightingale, the piano player - a messenger from the dark
Tom must go "over the Rainbow" (the shop) to get his costume.
The sinister element is what appears to be the secret world of the ultra-powerful elitists in control of the world. Those who are largely behind the scenes and who utilize every imaginable trick and deception to exploit the masses.
The misdirected publicity about the movie and the lightly publicized (at least in the US) cases of pedophile Alex Doutroux, The Franklin Cover-up, Bohemian Grove, and Skull and Bastards Society seem to be a parallels, that many may be vaguely aware of.
Is there any wonder that Ebert didn't "get it" or that other mainstream "critics" didn't like it?
It goes without saying (for a Kubrick movie), I found Eyes Wide Shut, exceedingly well filmed and directed. Acting was also superb; even Cruise was good.
BTW, Kubrick died suddenly and never got to see the 'finished' product.
Coincidence? Or was Kubrick punished for revealing too much?
SD
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| Rating | | | Date | June 09, 2005 | | Summary | When the nightmares chase you! | Content
| The implicit idea of the film is just one: Is the woman of these modern times absolutely of her omnipresence and faculty to decide the absolute domain of her sexuality? The rest of the film tries to find some clues.
The total domain of any relationship resides almost by desereved right, in whom loves less. The other may be love more but the other loves best. The fidelity is, in last instance, a very fragile equilibrium state; and the desperate behavior of the male counterpart exhibits those fissures. The hell of the mind plays an important and decisive role trying to seek and wonder why the countless attitudes of the female behavior.
Stanley Kubrick focused this interesting aspect displaying all his huge cinematographic power: as a visual director and creator of atmospheres and stages, he confronts us with this painful fact, but along the film you will discover the reality and fantasy may be blend. Somehow this film reminded immediately to Bergman's Scenes of a marriage; the script deserved perhaps a major scope. The master crossed the line but I think he did not advance with that sure step so typical of his previous film. That lack of decision may be seen as the main ingredient that affects the climax, because the wave was not appropriately high and strong to reach the ecstasy. That's why the last line of the film made you left the hall with a floating riddle in your mind. Perhaps this was precisely the intention of Kubrick, but having known so well all his previous works, you maintain the doubt.
This complex and mature film had two serious failures. One of them was the role of Cruise. For some reason Kubrick had to repeat several times some sequences of the picture; that means something very remarkable because all of we know about the love of Kubrick for the perfection.
In the other hand it was very hard to believe the locations in Pinewood to assume New York.
Anyway the last Opus of this master director was the pivot for Nicole Kidman who became in a solid actress since this picture.
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| Rating | | | Date | June 02, 2005 | | Summary | Kubrick's obsession with sex...all shown here... | Content
| For a long time i've always wandered what made Stanely Kubrick tick. Nearly every movie he's made takes sex, rape and extreme violence to the very limit of what the human mind can stomach. And although films such as Full metal Jacket and a Clockwork Orange show us this, at least they were half decent movies. This however, is just one giant orgy...literally!
There is this one scene for instance, which I still find myself watching over and over to try and understand what made Kubrick think this up. It's the scene where a young woman is completely naked wearing high-heels and laying/hanging off a sofa in an upstairs room of a party. She taken too much drugs and overdosed, and so a doctor is called out. Ok, so it's not the rape scene from A Clockwork Orange, yet it's frightfully disturbing to view.
Sometimes I find myself thinking...this is art. It's Stanley's way and style, let him experiment with ultra-graphic nudity and sex...he's one of the few directors who isn't (wasn't) afraid of showing the viewer things maybe we would never openly discuss or even think about in our normal lives. Yet the other half of me think...what a sicko!
Ultimatley, not a patch on A Clockwork Orange, which is much more extreme then this is. Full Metal Jacket still his greatest movie. The sad thing is, we'll never see a director's cut to see if the movie can be improved.
Oh well. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 08, 2005 | | Summary | Falling from the Garden of Eden | Content
| Many reviewers have made comments on the script, soundtrack, artistic direction, and acting in Eyes Wide Shut. All are superb, especially the interior photography, but I would rather focus on the profound story-telling in this exceptional film.
The plot of Eyes Wide Shut weaves together the path of man's fall from Grace, his struggle and journey to regain that state, and the amazing almost accidental way that Grace is restored to the human spirit.
Tom Cruise plays Dr. Tom, the Everyman. Nicole Kidman plays Allison, his wife. In the beginning of the film she plays the Eve archtype, who stimulates the fall from Grace with a curious note of discord and jealousy.
Tom, the Adam/Everyman character, has it all in his Garden of Eden. He has a wonderful medical practice near Central Park. His beautiful wife, who is shown in total naked innocense in the first scene of the film, manages an art gallery in SoHo. They have a multimillion dollar apartment overlooking the Park. They have a bright and lovely young daughter that loves them. They have a beautiful and to all appearances perfect life.
They attend a Holiday Party at the home of an ultra-rich, ultra-powerful patient of Dr. Tom. While separated, the Devil (disquised as a suave sophisticated older man) asks Nicole to dance and within minutes begins to seduce her and try to get her to go upstairs and have sex with him. The actor who plays this Devil character was perfect. He was slim with a big head full of white hair. He wraps himself around Nicole Kidman like a slinky boa constrictor. She avoids the seduction despite being slightly intoxicated. Yet she does not escape unharmed for he has planted the seed of discord in her mind. She performed well and she would like to be praised for resisting this seduction, but she realizes her husband will never know.
Dr. Tom in the meanwhile is tending to the herion overdose of a very high priced prostitute. Laying nude and unconscious, this woman appears to be the apex of earthly beauty. Dr. Tom revives her and treats her with extreme kindness and dignity and handles the entire situation very diplomatically. Again, in mirror image to his wife, he has performed beautifully yet he can't really tell his wife what he has experienced. They both leave the party with secrets they can not share. After smoking a join at home, Allison challenges her husband that he really does not understand the sexual desires of women and he really doesn't know her thoughts and secrets. The Devil has done his work! Adam is about to be handed the apple! Allison admits that she had a consuming overwhelming sexual fantasy while the family was on Cape Cod based on a military officer she saw eating dinner in a restaurant.
Dr. Tom's fall begins here and boy does he fall! He journeys through the night-life of Manhattan but eventually gets caught up in the nest of Devils in their sexual orgy hideaway. His life is in danger and yet a beautiful prostitute saves him and he is allowed to leave. Later he finds that she has died of an overdose. Remember that a sacrifice is required when one falls from Grace, a maxim of every religion.
In some ways his journey is like Ullyses trying to make his way home to the waiting Penelope. This is especailly true with the wild encounters he has with Manhattan low-life on his night's journey. He is almost seduced by a street walker who he finds out later has AIDS.
He makes his way back to his wife, full of contradictions and uncertainties, but resolved to rejoin with her - to renew the emotional bonds that he lost during his night of journey into dark places.
The film ends in a gigantic toy store, a place of renewed innocence, and when Dr. Tom asks Allison where to they go from here, she acknowledges that they move forward together for they were "lucky".
It is this word "lucky" that resolves the story from a theological point of view, for they have been saved by the Grace of God. They don't deserve this gift,they really didn't ask for it, they just struggled in the dark like all human beings. Yet, in the end they are the recipients of this Grace.
Stanley Kubrick based this film on Arthur Schnitzler's short novel "Traumnovelle", but surely Schnitzler based his novel on the eternal story of Adam and Eve, the fall and the redemption. This film that was judged obscene turns out to be sacred. |
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