Rating: 
Summary: If...I...Only...Knew...
Review: Someday, when I'm dead, I'm going to want these two hours of my life back.
Rating: 
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: Listen to no negative reviews. They are trying to make you as senseless as they are. The movie speaks truly about the eternal marriage problem and it would echo in your heart for the rest of your life.
Rating: 
Summary: A major disappointment
Review: I've been a great admirer of the work of Stanley Kubrick ever since "2001: A Space Odyssey" blew my mind as a child. And I awaited "Eyes Wide Shut" with great anticipation. But I'm sad to say that when I emerged from the theater, I was, for the first time in my life, left disappointed by Kubrick."Eyes Wide Shut" follows the disturbing, sexually-charged trek of a young married doctor (Tom Cruise) who is facing a crisis in his relationship with his wife (Nicole Kidman). His wanderings take him, among other scenarios, to a creepy orgy at the opulent meeting place of a secret society. I expected to see an intelligent, erotic masterpiece; instead, I found the film to have a depressingly exploitative, sleazy feel. The much hyped orgy scenes are utterly lifeless, and even laughable. The normally charismatic Cruise barely registers as the wandering physician. Actually, the only moment of fun in the movie comes with Alan Cumming's delightful cameo as a giddy desk attendant. I left this film wondering: Was Kubrick deliberately making a parody of a pretentious, would-be erotic "art" film? Or was his original vision butchered in the editing room? As the final film of a visionary genius, "Eyes Wide Shut" deserves to be seen and evaluated. But as a piece of cinematic art, I found it profoundly unsatisfying.
Rating:
Summary: Dark erotic and for Mature adults
Review: This movie is for mature adults who probably want something thought provoking and artistic, because most of Stanley Kubrick's movies are intense, and not for the immature or if I do say so anyone with mental sensitivities. It is a sad movie and erotic. Tom Cruise and his real life wife(at the time)wife Nicole Kidman play Dr. and Mrs Bill Harford, an up and coming professional (the plain kitchen sure didn't look upscale)couple who have some serious problems. She is a stay at home Mom who doesn't fit in, so she drinks and flirts. Flirts in a cat and mouse way that you are sure will result in her getting bit, and bit bad! It is a slow and tense movie that incompasses some troubling dark sides of life, like the secret BDSM sex parties hidden away behind gated homes in well to do neighborhoods. A father who sells his daughter for sex and secret messages being sent in places like a costume shop. The fact that Dr Hartford spends so much time walking the streets late at night between a world that is hidden and the real world that is falling a part at home tells you that this isn't some childhood fairy tale but more a nightmare that both he and his wife want to wake up from. It is a lavish film when one stands back and looks at the scenery per se. But the darkness and the underside of lost souls and lonely people is never out of view. It is not a money I would watch often, but often enough, to simply remind me that there are two worlds. And which world I choose to stay in.
Rating: 
Summary: This is a true Kubrick film.
Review: "Eyes Wide Shut" is a very hard film for me to sit through. There is brilliance in just about every nuance of its story, in every masterful shot, in the superb direction of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, who makes his presence known throughout the movie with his unique techniques of camera movement and cinematography. The story has little to be desired in terms of complexity and movement, which is subtly suspenseful and very poignant. But there are some aspects of the movie that cannot be passed by, like the film's gratuitous amount of nudity and sexual practice. But still, the movie has a lot to offer. Kubrick begins this fascinating film by introducing us to William (Bill) Harford, a gynecologist, and his wife Alice. They are an upper-crust couple with a daughter living in New York City, and our first glimpses of their life seem perfectly normal and undemanding. Kubrick even goes so far as to show us their commitment to one another by putting them into several risque situations during a party scene in the first act. Alice drunkenly dances the night away with a total stranger, who keeps trying to persuade her to run away with him, while Bill is set upon by two women who are obviously doing more than making simple conversation. The spin on their fairy tale marriage comes the night after the party, as Alice and Bill share a joint in their room. Alice brings up the two girls at the party, which Bill counters with her waltzes with the unknown man. Alice becomes antagonized by his opinions on women and the trust in their marriage, and reveals to him a sexual longing she once held for someone else in the beginning of their marriage. Bill is upset by this, and finds an excuse to leave when he is called away to visit a deceased patient. Thus begins an intense foray of extensive eroticism and sexual temptation that threatens to destroy their marriage and Bill's life. The movie walks a fine line between fantasy and reality. Upon hearing his wife's admissions, Bill becomes plagued by dream-like visions of his wife's fantasy. It is these vivid pictures of his mind that drive him to the edge of fidelity, as he will later meet a hooker, attend a party which looks like something straight from the "Kama Sutra," and find himself trapped in a web of deception among those he thinks are his friends as well as with himself. Kubrick masters Bill's subconscious by revealing a small piece at a time, leading up to the last full, shocking image of his wife's "infidelity." These are small, shocking cuts, but remain important in the advancement of the character's mind. Kubrick keeps the pacing well-timed and subtle, keeping the suspense at bay until the final moments when all the secrets are revealed. Attention is critical in watching this movie: there is a lot to miss by not giving your full attention to particular scenes. Each sequence plays a crucial role of some sort, whether it be an advancement of the plot or some small secret leading up to the big finish. And what a finish it is. The movie is a milestone in creating a sense of high tension without ever going overboard on the suspense. Kubrick balances the physical and outer aspects of suspense with the inner tension of Bill's mind quite well, never losing focus of the point he is trying to make through this story. The ending is very satisfactory, one of those that ties everything together before finishing itself off in the last fade-out. All of the plot points you thought were useless and unnecessary come to light in a climax that is truly inspired and relieving. Every nuance of this movie practically screams "Kubrick!" His attention to details and his grace in filming keep this film on par with his other films. I recognized his tracking shots, such as those of people walking down hallways, from his film "The Shining." This is perhaps the most stand-out feature of his career, and one he is most noted for. His use of color and light imagery are also very fervent. His characters are cast in lights that make them look pale and death-like, while the surrounding colors of the set pieces and the streets are branded with vivid hues and tones. And the images are quite shocking, to say the very least, some of the most shocking I've ever seen in a movie. Which leads me to wonder, was it really THAT necessary to have so much gratuitous sexual scenes spread throughout the plot? I know that Kubrick likes to shock his audiences with images sometimes,... but the graphic display of the party scenes seems to be a bit of a wandering from what the movie is all about. There's an old saying that goes, "Less is more." The movie would do a lot better in following this adage, instead of showing all the goods. The performances at the front of this motion picture are helmed gloriously by real-life couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, who play the married couple qith ease and extravagance (not like they needed any coaching or anything). Cruise is composed yet torn apart inside, barely showing emotion until he cannot hold it in any longer. Kidman's performance is both moving and disappointing at times. I found her confrontations with Bill about her fantasy to be quite disturbing and beautifully mastered, but in her revelation of a dream she had been having, her sobs seemed a bit forced and unconvincing. But, looking past all that, these two actors have a bravura talent that presents itself beautifully onscreen. And what about that chemistry? Rounding things out, "Eyes Wide Shut" is an inspired and mesmerizing look at fidelity, the mind, and emotion. Kubrick's masterful storytelling and filming techniques shine out in this, his final project, standing out as a truly brilliant achievement in movie-making. Pick it apart, and you'll find that there is more to this movie than what you see on its cover.
Rating:
Summary: I love Stanley Kubrick - but this is not one of his best
Review: This film looks FANTASTIC and I watched it all the way through without getting bored. But be warned - the film constantly promises something that it never delivers and so at the end you're left with that "is that it?" feeling. Intriguing and watchable it may be but the film is NOT profound. It does NOT offer deep and unique insights into relationships. Everything it tells you has been told better in many other films. It just takes a long, winding road to reveal the blatantly obvious. If you haven't already done so watch Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" or "The Killing" to see what he was once capable of
Rating:
Summary: I pity those who hate the movie
Review: Eyes Wide Shut is the most realistic movie ever made. The major problems of marriage as well as between men and women potrayed in Mr. Kubrick's masterpiece were so true. One of my friends visited me during I was watching the movie on DVD, and we talked about his crisis that his present-girlfriend called him when he was having dinner with his ex-girlfriend. Of course, my friend told his present-girlfriend that he was accompanied by his mother. I said to him maybe his girlfriend was unfaithful too. He replied determinedly, "No, definitely not. she is a good girl." 20 minutes after I saw the argument between Cruise and Kidman, the everlasting problem popped out in front of my eyes, in our mortal world. Never had I seen a movie so close to real life, and I was left wordless, yet so excited. I have heard people saying hoe crappy Eyes Wide Shut is. I can simply say they are pathetic, for they lack one of the most wonderful traits given to human beings--appreciating art, and they are not even willing to spend two minutes thinking about the meaning of the film. What I have to mention is the score of Eyes Wide Shut was purely fascinating. Shostakovich's Jazz Waltz 2 echoed throughout my mind for over a week after I saw the movie. I watched the movie with my mom and she enjoyed it a lot, which also made her think about her "life". I saw Eyes Wide Shut in Taiwan so luckily I got the uncensored version. The additional scenes were just more nudes in action, which did not add anything to the story. I did not realized the fact until I bought the DVD in Canada, when I found certain scenes were missing. Well, I can only say that don't get too fussy about those scenes since they didn't affect the perfect story. To people who hate the movie: Grow up, please.
Rating: 
Summary: Tension of uncomfortable sexuality builds, but not enough
Review: This clever but ultimately unsatisfying erotic psychodrama has a couple of high points but for me fell flat most of the way. It is clearly intended to seem unreal, but also seems contrived in too many places. The best parts for me are scenes where Kubrick plays on the ambiguities of jealousy in both male and female flavors. He touches on very uncomfortable realities for both men and women. Yet he lets go of the tension just when he needs it most. In the pivotal early scene, the wife confesses an intensely erotic adulterous fantasy to her husband. She reveals a deeply disturbing aspect of female sexuality that her husband understandably never considered, that she can feel utter tenderness and devotion to her mate while having overwhelming erotic fantasies of another man. Possibly we are being treated to the real-life implications of women's mating strategies being a combination of finding reliable resources in a man while seeking out even better genes in another. Since 10% of babies are estimated to belong to a man other than the spouse, this uncomfortable aspect of female sexuality is probably not just a fantasy of Kubrick's. The husband is obsessed with it for the rest of the movie. Not just for the obvious reason that it makes him jealous and insecure, but I think it is also arousing to him to think of his wife with another man, and that's where the ambiguities in male sexuality seem to come into play. The husband seems driven to put himself in sexual situations, even though he never seems to quite carry them through, just as his wife claims to have never carried out her fantasy. The movie does a reasonably good job providing an unreal sense of confusing erotic feelings in the main characters, but is curiously lacking in erotic excitement for the movie viewer. The sense of fantasy doesn't quite absorb me, the scenes are just contrived enough that I could never quite feel the conflicts or the desires in the characters, except possibly the powerfully erotic scenes where the husband imagines his wife with the naval officer of her fantasies. I think part of where this fell down for me was that the wife is clearly ambivalent in her feelings about her husband, not in having had erotic fantasies of another man, but in not even having a strong sense of committment to her husband. This destroys some of the erotic tension. She has an orgy dream with an odd twist where her husband clearly plays the role of an annoyance rather than a jealous lover while she is taken by countless men. At the climax, where they presumably are recovering from the near-fantasy nature of the rest of the film she reveals that she has a hard time saying "forever" to him; playing on his insecurity about her commitment rather than the sexual jealousy and arousal that seems to obsess him throughout the movie up to that point. But we already sensed that she was ambivalent about her marriage before that, since her dream of sex with countless men. The initial palpable tug between her committment and her sexual passion was already broken by then, and she just seems uninterested rather than torn. Perhaps that ironically foreshadowed what happened to Tom and Nicole.
Rating:
Summary: Huh?
Review: A very long time to wait for a punchline that Kidman is incapable of delivering. Cruise is a non-starter and it's time for the guy to have some work done on his nose -- sounds like he's breathing through a straw. The only part of the movie that works is the 'big house' section: good music, nudity until it starts to seem like furniture. What was Kubrick thinking? Anyone but the Kidman brothers! Very disappointing last effort.
Rating:
Summary: Differences of Opinion
Review: Many differences of opinion are presented in the reviews of this film. Take a minute to preview both the positive and negative opinions. I am appalled after reading that the original film score was edited even to the objection of the director himself. There is a review (see the 'coming soon' dvd) that gives some info regarding this censorship. I have also read that this movie was not released in letterbox format. How dare you who are responsible for decisions regarding this film, disrespect Stanley Kubrick, and insult the intelligence of those to whom this artwork speaks. To those on this wonderful planet that are ashamed, insulted, or embarrassed by the movie, I sympathize and respect your position. I am afraid however, the changes coming to our world will either liberate you or expand your rage, but you can be sure of one thing if you hold true to your beliefs, you will be trampled under foot. What has been done to this film is just another example of our 'living humanitary dysfunction' that defines a large part of the content in this movie. I think Stanley Kubrick is saying something of the future that the today is trying to avoid. Regarding the relationship of husband and wife, how silly we are to assume that we are the owner of the mind and soul of one who chooses to become intimate with us. How utterly stupid and blind we are to think that our vow to another produces our undying devotion. Virtue is an attribute acquired after time has weathered it, and only unto those who have taken the pathetic burden of attempting to know themselves - this is the road to pain. We are a planet of eyes shut tight and in loathe of any pain that may come upon us, and yet we believe that we are seeing. Dream on..
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