Rating: 
Summary: Hung up on Reality?
Review: Much of the confusion about this film resolves when the viewer is willing to see in a new way. Based on the novella "Traumnovelle," which translates "Rapsody" or "Dream State," EYES WIDE SHUT does not follow the expected linear narrative that we are used to in film. Its language is poetry, its time and space ritual time and space. Kubrick's storyline is a gossamer, at once veiling and revealing life as lived in the primal soup of our unconscious mind. Whether we know it or not, we think our perceptions are reality and thus live with our eyes-wide-shut. Clearly Buddhist influences are at play here. Kubrick's interest in Buddhism began to become clear in his first film entitled FEAR AND DESIRE. It is the first truth of the Buddha (a name which literally means "the one who woke up") that all of life is sorrowful, and the second teaching is that all sorrow is caused by fear and desire. Alice is filled with desire for the navel officer in her head and Bill's fear is losing Alice, and himself. Waking up to the realization that fear and desire are not related at all to reality but are distortions in his own mind is moment of his (and our) transendance. It is not until Bill faces and almost kisses the worst of all fears, death, in the morgue that he begins to see that all he feared and desired are not real. Returning to his wife and switching off the omnipresent materialism of the Chistmas tree he finds in his room, in his bed, next to his wife, his own mask. He now recognizes it as such and finds in that realization his own personal liberation. The bliss that follows could not better be represented than in a child's pre-Christmas visit to a toy store, which is the perfect setting for Bill to hear Alice's closing climactic invitation. Real sex, like real play, is real life at its most celebratory. Finally, their eyes and ours are wide open!What a ride! Thank you Stanley!
Rating:
Summary: HIPNOTIC
Review: This is what was called in the past an "art-film". The ambivalent audience opinions regarding this film just prove its profoundness. As one film critic wrote, people were anticipating an "Impossible Mission with Tom Cruise" film; well, this is not the case, fortunately; and it's a GREAT film, someone even called it hypnotic, and I agree. It has with it the taste of Michelangelo Antonioni's masterpiece: Blow-Up (1966), and there are places where this film is even better.
Rating: 
Summary: Kubrick's Enigmatic Swansong
Review: Be warned, as you watch 'Eyes Wide Shut'; if you are expecting an erotic thriller, or a fast-paced suspense film, or a 'By-the-Numbers' formula picture, you will be disappointed! Stanley Kubrick always searched for themes that would challenge viewers, and force them to see the world in a different light. 'Eyes Wide Shut', his final film, certainly does that, and is a film that will be enjoyed more with repeated viewings.What is reality? This film challenges us to make our own conclusions, as we see the story of a Yuppie couple unfold. Tom Cruise, as the husband, has a successful career, but is shallow and superficial, coasting along on his looks and social contacts. Nicole Kidman, his unemployed spouse, is a good wife and mother, but bored, and compensates by drinking and flirting, and fantasizing about a Naval officer she'd seen the previous summer. As she acknowledges her erotic daydreams to Cruise, he reacts, first with jealousy, then with a desire to find an outlet for the sexual frustration he feels. Thus begins nighttime odysseys into a dreamlike world of discovery; of a friend's unfulfilled desires, of a dual-personality hooker, of a teenager being pimped by her father, of a cult which may only promote orgies, or may have a far more sinister intent. Nothing is spelled out, or made obvious, and Kubrick throws in clues which will have you reaching conclusions that you may find will change, when the film is viewed again! 'Eyes Wide Shut' demands your full attention, and rewards you with an enigma! Is ANYTHING what it seems? The film's final line, delivered by Kidman, is coarse, but totally in keeping with Cruise's journey, throughout the film, and provides the director a wry closure to this most unusual film! While 'Eyes Wide Shut' will never be rated as highly as '2001', 'The Shining', 'A Clockwork Orange', or 'Dr. Strangelove', it is provocative and mysterious, and deserves your attention!
Rating: 
Summary: Gorgeous Cinematography
Review: Too many people are going to be drawn to this film because they think it is supposed to be overly "sexy." The most beautiful parts of the movie will be lost on those people. The lighting and cinematography are first rate (as you would expect) and the secondary characters are beautiful in their own human way. The two prostitutes, while representing the beginning and ending of the "career" are still sweet, caring women. Nicole Kidman gives an Oscar-worthy performance.
Rating:
Summary: Perfectly Misunderstood; In My Top 5 Films of All Time
Review: Why is it that Americans have such short attention spans? For those who have not seen it, "Eyes Wide Shut" is NOT a boring film at all... a person simply has to have the right frame of mind to watch it. Because American cinema has been "dumbed down" to a ridiculously low level, it's a fact that most people will not like this film (and DON'T watch it simply to see a lot of sex and nudity - that's DEFINATLEY NOT the purpose of this film, and you'll be disappointed anyway). So, if you like "the average American" movies, then avoid this film... you'll find it boring because you require nonstop laughs and big explosions. This is a film about sexual values and their importance in marriage (and I doubt that a lot of people would be interested in this subject matter anyway, considering how low the media has taken us with sex). "Eyes Wide Shut" reaffirmed a lot of questions I had. Hopefully it will for you, too. Oh, and as for the NC-17 thing... it's ludicrous. It's hard to believe that a movie with such a strong sense of morality could contain parts that are "inappropriate". Although this film should be viewed only by mature minds (this includes those under 17), I hope that everyone can keep their minds open to it...
Rating:
Summary: Everyone can totally relate
Review: Dr. Tom Harford and his wife Alice live the good life, rubbing elbows with Manhattan's elite. After a party one evening, Alice reveals a deeply-held sexual fantasy, which sends her husband into a jealous rage, but also awakens thoughts of his own. Fueled by both his anger and his curiosity, he descends into a sexual underworld.I dont know why people dont get this film because alot of couples can relate. This was a excellent movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Eyes Wide Shut
Review: When I saw it at the theater during it's first week out, about a dozen or more people left, not because it was controversial....but that it was so damn boring. The person I was with fell asleep in the theater during the last half hour. I wish I could have been so fortunate. I give it 1 star because you don't have a zero stars rating!
Rating:
Summary: Eyes Wide Open
Review: I must admit I had higher hopes for Kubrick's last film, but his images and use of color in the film (ie:the plush red carpet and purple robes in the pre orgy scene) are completely breathtaking. I think this was a film that Kubrick wanted viewers to develop thier own feelings and perceptions of. He always used to state this concept when he gave very rare interviews. I think that we have become too used to films catering to us by thinking for us. This film puts the ball in the viewer's court, and some people can't stand that. But the most amazing thing about the film is the music and imagery. The camera appears a bit out of focus and dreamy like, which creates a fantasy like world that the daft plot needs desperately. Visually stunning--keep your eyes open for this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Perfectly Awful
Review: First: No one admires Kubrick's good films more than I do. Until this, he never made a bad one (though I don't know if "bad" can be applied to something as freakishly entertaining as "Eyes Wide Shut"). Three or four of his movies are among my all-time favorites; and I was very saddened by his death. But I think we ought to review the movie, not the man. It's an insult to any great director for us to celebrate his films uncritically, just because of his heroic stature in the medium, or for reasons of sentiment. A private person like Kubrick, especially, would be disgusted by this. The thirty or so takes he shot for every set-up in "Eyes Wide Shut" are all the evidence we need that he would wish his last work to be judged solely on its own merits. Let's dispense with the argument, often given below, that those who don't love this film simply "don't understand it". That's a lazy dodge. None of these reviewers explain what it is the rest of us aren't getting; they resort to vague terms like "dream-like" and "intense." For them, the "brilliance" of this movie lies in its atmosphere, or in some other ethereal quality that exists--or doesn't--beyond the realm of verbal expression or refutation. And so it should be kept out of these discussions. Judging this film's "atmosphere" is especially difficult for me, since I laughed helplessly through every scene both times I saw it. Yet apparently this film speaks to some people on a special, semi-rational level, so that they feel a wild need to defend it. (Witness the suspiciously high "unhelpful" ratings under the other negative reviews, presumably the result of a couple of activists hitting the "no" button a hundred times). But it's probable that if some anonymous, first-time director had made this mess, it would have meant nothing to anyone, and perhaps would never even have been released. Looking hard at it, you can sort of see the chalk-lines of the masterpiece Kubrick thought he was making. It wouldn't take a lot of self-delusion to simply ignore the cat-calls from the rest of the audience, and pronounce it a success. I wanted Kubrick's last film to be great, too. I rushed out to see it at the very first show in Columbia. And I could not believe my eyes. Or ears. Nothing in this film works. The funereal pace, the generic yet ponderous dialogue, the portentous piano score cueing up non-surprises, the threnodial orgy set to a dirge, with masked porn-stars who talk like Star Trek priestesses: all of it is hilariously pompous, and completely misfired. And none of it leads anywhere. What can you say about a movie whose plot-twists lag a full hour behind the I.Q. of the dimmest viewer? That it's insulting? Hopelessly out of touch? The 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. But then--as usual--Tom's lifeless mask (that is, his face, not that rhinestone thing) gives no clue of what, if anything, he is thinking. And the other actors do not compensate. Kubrick's theme, that dream and desire possess a lethal power different, but no less consequential, than that of real actions in the everyday, was far better illustrated by the rich dreams he shared with us in the past.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the Rest of the Film?
Review: When "Eyes Wide Shut" was released this past summer, it was the most anticipated film for me in the last 10 years. However Warner Bros. decided to release an altered version of the film, claiming that it was Stanley Kubrick's wish that it be released in the US that way. How dumb did they think the serious American moviegoer is? It was a crying shame that we could not see the Whole film- the version that others around the world was allowed to see but us poor Puritans in the US would be too shocked by this version. Come on. Has anyone ever checked out Cinemax late at night? No wonder the heads of WB resigned shortly after the film was released. It is still an excellent film with Nicole Kidman absolutely luminous. Too bad the Academy overlooked her, but I think that the hype surrounding "EWS" ultimately did it in! Still, don't miss it. And again, Shame on Warners for not even relasing the DVD in it's entire form. I guess they wanted to show that they indeed were right after all. To that I say, on behalf of the late Mr. K: Bull!
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