Eyes Wide Shut

Starring: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Genre: Drama
Year: 1999
Rating: 2 / 5

Would someone care to share with me the main point of Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut? Or, as one fellow critic stated, why did this film take so long to complete? Director Stanley Kubrick, hailed by just about every film critic as one of the most brilliant and influential filmmakers of our time, took two years of his life - and the lives of his two leading actors, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman - to produce this film. It contained countless callbacks, numerous cast changes, and some nasty tangles with the MPAA. The result? Nearly three hours of psychological babble and a perpetually naked Nicole Kidman. Visually appealing? Certainly. A good film? Far, far from it.

Dr. William Harford (Tom Cruise) is a respected New York doctor with a devoted, loving wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman). At a typically snooty party thrown by socialite Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack, the second actor cast in the role), an accident befalls the host's personal "entertainment," Mandy (Julienne Davis). It seems that the call girl, after tending to Mr. Ziegler's "needs," proceeded to indulge her drug habit, leading to a near overdose. The young Dr. Harford, longtime friend of Ziegler's, is called upstairs to help, leaving his slightly tipsy wife in the arms of an older, opportunistic gentleman.

Upon returning home, discussions about the good doctor's mysterious disappearance upstairs lead to some questions about Alice's new acquaintance. During the course of this argument, Alice reveals to her husband that she has, at times, had lustful thoughts about other men. At one point, while the family was on vacation a year prior, she very nearly slept with an attractive sailor who happened to be staying at the same hotel. (This near-affair, mind you, is played out in short excerpts throughout the film, seen as Dr. Harford imagines it would have occurred.) William is outraged and confused, and so begins a nocturnal journey about the city, one which will expose him to things of which he never dreamed.

Aside from the opportunity to work with her husband, I am still not certain why Nicole Kidman chose to sign on for Eyes Wide Shut. Though the movie may have had the potential to be a showcase for husband Tom Cruise, it offered little for this well-respected actress. After a few scenes of drunken flirtation, she is left to play alternately the dutiful wife and a lustful seductress, the latter of which nearly always occurs in the nude. Tom Cruise gives a commendable performance in spite of an ill-conceived, unfulfilling script. The places his character finds himself are outlandish, and the plot does not come anywhere near a resolution at the film's conclusion. For someone wishing to see a true sample of the late Stanley Kubrick's work, Eyes Wide Shut should be avoided at all costs.

Cast:

Tom Cruise..........	William Harford
Nicole Kidman..........	Alice Harford
Sydney Pollack..........	Victor Ziegler

Certification: Rated R for sexual situations and language.
Running Time: 159 minutes.

Additional Info: Internet Movie Database
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