Eyes Wide Shut

Rating:
Summary: Kubrick's Take On Marriage
Review: As crazy and over-the-top as it is, "Eyes Wide Shut" is a surprisingly truthful depiction of marriage. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman play a husband and wife who have been married for almost a decade. They have a child together, whom they both cherish. Their life seems blissful--they're both attractive, wealthy, and they obviously still enjoy eachother's company.

In the span of a couple of days, their marriage undergoes some extraordinary, radical changes, beginning with Kidman's seemingly sudden decision to be brutally honest with her husband. After her revelations, Cruise becomes caught up in a wild set of circumstances that lead him to realize that he has been going through life with blinders on.

There has been much discussion about the graphic depiction of sex in this movie, and while it's definitely explicit, it's also clearly meant for viewing by adults only. Cruise has nightmarish fantasies of his wife in the arms of other men, while at the same time he's confronted with temptation after temptation. Some of the scenarios don't seem particularly tempting in and of themselves, but coupled with Cruise's mental state, they are believable.

In some ways the movie is shockingly ordinary--the feelings Cruise and Kidman convey are felt, even fleetingly, by all of us at some point during our marriages. Of course this is all displayed vividly, Kubrick style. Cruise doesn't just find himself amid any "regular" orgy, but rather in a bizarre, secret ritual. But overall, the movie seeks to point out how complex a relationship a marriage really is, and to warn about the dangers we face when we take our spouses for granted.

Rating:
Summary: Worth it for the Cruise & Spielberg interviews, alone...
Review: If you love cinema, if you are passionate about storytelling, if you seek to understand the brilliance of a man with remarkable visual intuition, you need to own this dvd. The inclusion of the interviews with Cruise, Kidman, & Spielberg ALONE warrant its purchase. In these marvelous "bonus" segments, Tom Cruise reveals his frailty and sincerity, in a raw, candid interview the likes of which you have never seen before. And the Spielberg interview may just completely change your perceptions of Stanley Kubrick, and may help you understand why his peers consider him, "the master." If you are concerned about the lack of a widescreen or letterbox version, please keep in mind that this is the way Kubrick intended the film be preserved. --a fan p.s. If you've never looked-up a word in the dictionary before, do not even bother renting EYES WIDE SHUT. You need not apply...

Rating:
Summary: A great movie, BUT...
Review: When i saw it for the first time at the theater, I found the movie great. It's the kind of movie which makes you reflect about many things and after seen it, you talk a lot about it with your friends. But why on earth a full screen DVD? Have the editor drunk or smoke? I hope, wish, prey, or whatever, that a widescreen version will be released soon.

Rating:
Summary: Only a few things save it from being a complete mess
Review: Pros: cinematography, sets, score- all done beautifully.

Cons: acting (Kidman's terrible in this), script wanders all over the place, lots of pointless scenes. (and since when did a doctor's card become like an FBI badge?)

I felt so ripped off at the end of this movie. All of the Kubrick worshipers, deal with it: this is not a good movie overall, no matter who made it. Things happen throughout most of the movie that either have nothing to do with the plot, or are forgotten about later on. There are some good things, though. I love the way Kubrick draws out camera shots, some seem to last at least 2 minutes- I feel that makes it easier to watch, and makes the actors concentrate more. As I said earlier, sets and score are wonderful, and the piano hauntingly makes the masked party seem very creepy (although inserting all those cgi people in front of the orgy was ridiculous.) But sets and score doesn not make a movie, so I cannot give it a higher score. I just felt like this could have been so much more, the potential was definitely there.

Rating:
Summary: This film is for married couples
Review: I didn't think I was going to like this film ,but by me being married I understood what Cruise ,and Kidman was going through. This film was about a married couple who was trying to find their sexuality they were faithful to each other ,but through the film they have so many temptations and they try to do the right thing. I really like this film it's worth buying ,but warning theres lot's of nudity.

Rating:
Summary: Cruise mystifys audiences again
Review: This is an amazing film that sums up Stanley Kubrick's amazing career with a final bang. The film seems confusing until the end, but when certain factors came to light, you are just in awe of the acting, the story, and the overall, delivery of the film. Recomended for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: quest for the answer
Review: Kubrick has done it again. I watched the film twice in the theater, and could not wait till it came out for home viewing. i just bought the dvd, a great transfer of the film, and can not stop watcing it. symbolism graces this film from begining to end. each time i watch it i find new revelations that push my mind to the outer limits. yes it can be passed off as a long, boring film. that is if you must have everything spoon fed to you. if you love films that make you think, question, and expand your mind to the max you will like Kubrick's final addition to the true art of making films. I just have one question, how long did they have to spend building all the great sets that visually stun the eye.

Rating:
Summary: Bad porn or good art?
Review: An art film starring Hollywood's most famous married couple,EWS was bound to confuse and annoy a lot of people. I found it a lotbetter than many reviews have painted it. It is ponderous at times, and longer than it perhaps should be, but the cinematography is striking and there are moments in which Kubrick seems to have perfectly captured the disturbing essence of dreams.

The DVD edition understandably lacks a director's commentary, but contains interviews with Cruise, Kidman and Steven Spielberg. END

Rating:
Summary: love
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Rating:
Summary: Open your eyes
Review: The bravest film Kubrick made since savagely ridiculing our military leaders at the height of the Cold War in "Dr. Strangelove." Here, Kubrick made a leisurely, indirect, adult and understated film after 20 years of increasingly loud, frantic, hamfisted, overstated and puerile Hollywood product. The pace is that of life, not most movies (I'll bet few who found this film slow could sit through most films by Antonioni or Bertolucci). Kubrick's visuals are elegant rather than glitzy, eye-pleasing rather than like being poked in the eye for 2 hours. The soundtrack is selective, whereas most other directors don't know when to quit with the Foley dubbing, as if all possible sounds are equally loud and equally important (slurps, gulps, gunshots). Points are made plain for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, where most films overstate everything, to the point that nothing could be missed by the most obtuse 5-year-old and many adults now expect their thinking done for them. Kubrick trusts us to recognize evil in comfortable and friendly surroundings, where most films portray evil in the most primitive and obvious terms. Note how many critics and reviewers think Sydney Pollack's final "explanation" ruins everything: "thuddingly obvious exposition at the end is maybe the worst (and most superfluous) of its kind ever filmed. It extinguishes whatever magic or eeriness was left. And you can't believe Tom is so stupid not to have figured these things out on his own." Nothing could be more wrong! This comfy, avuncular man with the billiard table and generous liquor is EVIL, friends! Time magazine got it: "bottomlessly evil"! He has sex in the john with an overdosed hooker with his wife in the house; he has the musician beaten up and kidnapped, adding "That's a hell of a lot less than what he deserved"; he terrorizes his friends and has them under surveillance; he contemptuously dismisses the dead hooker as if she were trash. If that's not enough, his billiard table is RED, not green -- a thuddingly obvious warning, but not obvious enough for some people. WHO BELIEVED HIS EXPLANATION FOR A MINUTE? My wife and I shuddered! The atmosphere of dread DEEPENED for us. If Pollack's story is "obvious" to Tom, it's because he wants to believe what he sees and hears -- he doesn't bother verifying anything with the police, as Pollack knows he won't. His eyes are wide shut. So are those of anyone who thought the dark cloud had lifted. You were fooled like Tom was! One person at a Kubrick site thought he'd spotted a continuity error: the woman with the mask had different nipples than the addict hooker. This man obviously missed the big black headdress that went with the mask, atop Tom's refrigerator when he finally made it home. I could go on. The film was planned down to the tiniest detail, sustaining symbolic unity through everything from street signs to washrags. Alas, unnoticed by many people. If some here can't articulate more than that it was "dreamlike", it's because the meaning isn't in what's obvious; meaning is too threatening to the dreamer and the mind masks it. The film is dreamy less in mood than in its LOGIC, where Tom's every impending sexual encounter is a brush alongside death or danger and is interrupted, as in a dream; where the woman in the mask can be his wife Nicole (who is also home in bed), saving him once again rather than deserting him and their daughter, as she once considered. For music lovers, the password "Fidelio" reinforces it: Fidelio was a woman who had to use disguise to free her man from prison. Is all this too subtle for you? The title gives it away: our eyes are wide shut when we're fantasizing (Nicole) or dreaming (Tom). The film is a Moebius strip of obsession and fear, where being abandoned by a hypothetically faithless wife is more terrible than the manipulative friendship of a philandering killer. Baffled viewers, your mental pocket was picked by a master, and you don't even know what you lost. Open your eyes and try again!