Eyes Wide Shut Review
by Edward Johnson-ott (PBBP24A AT prodigy DOT com)July 17th, 1999
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack, Marie Richardson, Rade Serbedzija, Todd Field, Vinessa Shaw, Alan Cumming, Sky Dumont, Leelee Sobieski, Thomas Gibson, Madison Eginton, Tres Hanley, Clarke Hayes. Music by Jocelyn Pook. Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Frederic Raphael, inspired by "Traumnovelle" by Arthur Schnitzler. Produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. 159 minutes.
Rated R, 4 stars (out of five stars)
Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly
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After watching Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" and sorting through your own reactions, I suggest you hop online and check out those of various critics. After all, part of the pleasure of a Kubrick film comes from comparing notes with others, because his work is open to so many different interpretations.
Count on "Eyes Wide Shut" to provide an abundance of divergent opinions. The film concludes with a blunt, single-word statement from Nicole Kidman's character. One critic called the finale "guardedly hopeful," suggesting that "Kubrick believed in some sort of human progress after all." Another writer, after "carefully considering the wording of the character's final statement and the context in which it was made," states that "in the end, depersonalization wins out."
Meanwhile, a third critic, who considers this Kubrick's most humane film, found the final shots moving and commented on the film's "unexpected last line," referring to it as advice that is "at once practical, eloquent and obscene."
All of this in response to one carefully placed word. What fun! To the very end, Stanley Kubrick remained the consummate provocateur, as well as an unparalleled master in all aspects of filmmaking.
Deliberate and haunting, the two hour, 39 minute production is a grandly- crafted dreamscape, simultaneously intimate and detached. Kubrick puts his lead characters in overwhelming settings, where piquant observations are nearly engulfed by the swirl of light, color and sound. The fallout comes later, during painful exchanges between husband and wife.
Inspired by Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella "Traumnovelle," "Eyes Wide Shut" follows Alice (Nicole Kidman) and Dr. Bill (Tom Cruise) Harford, an affluent New York couple, to a Christmas party at the opulent home of one of Bill's friends, Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack). Separated for most of the evening, Bill visits with an old medical school buddy, tends to a female guest who has overdosed on drugs and deals with two flirtatious models, while Alice becomes giddy on champagne, fending off the smarmy advances of an aging European gent who fancies himself a playboy.
While sharing a joint at home the next night, a discussion of fidelity turns traumatic when Alice, annoyed by some over-assured, vaguely condescending remarks from her husband, explains that she once strongly considered cheating on him with an attractive stranger. I was mesmerized by Alice's bedroom monologue and Bill's reaction to her words. Here is a man who views his marriage like a Faberge egg, a meticulous construct with every aspect of the relationship affixed in just the right place to maximize its elegance. When Alice rebels, her slurry confession/verbal assault shatters his treasured illusion.
Faced with the prospect of a living marriage that demands active participation rather than routine maintenance, Bill panics. He leaves to visit a patient, but instead of returning home, prowls the darkened city streets, repeatedly envisioning a lurid affair he knows never happened. His compulsive exploration takes him into the furthest reaches of New York's sexual underground, which turns out to be far more dangerous, both spiritually and physically, than he could possibly have anticipated.
Throughout the film, Kubrick uses a thrust and retreat approach that underscores Bill's wary dance with true intimacy. Again and again, characters almost connect, only to pull back at the last moment. The effect is frustrating and illuminating.
Kubrick has more tricks up his sleeve. From the opening shot, an image of Alice's nude form that cuts to black like the blinking of an eye, he deals with audience preconceptions as adroitly as Alice does with Bill's. We get the much-anticipated orgy scene, but it is an detached spectacle that is more chilling than erotic. The participants begin with the ritual exchange of kisses, but the figures wear masks and their lips never touch. When the sex finally starts, the motions are formal, almost mechanical (and in the U.S. theatrical version, censored by digital figures inserted to insure an R-rating from the prudes at the MPAA). Anyone expecting a high-brow porn movie is in for a big disappointment.
As with most Kubrick films, the imagery is sumptuous and arresting. At the Christmas party, he uses a grainy film stock that accents the rich gold and white motif. Actors are strikingly framed and lighted, with splashes of color alternately highlighting and contrasting the mood of each scene. The New York street sets are detailed, but under-populated, adding to the ghostly feel. Jocelyn Pook's score is equally effective, with pronounced piano notes heightening the tension.
But the most resonant moments are the stark exchanges between Kidman and Cruise. Although Kidman has less screen time than her husband, she dominates the proceedings with a revelatory performance that is spontaneous, fragile, authoritative and altogether riveting. But don't overlook Cruise, who displays his trademark intensity while giving his character welcome shadings.
After only one viewing, I haven't come close to processing "Eyes Wide Shut" enough to make any sweeping pronouncements on the film. Stanley Kubrick movies require multiple viewings and I look forward to seeing this seductive, challenging psychological drama again, to further study the final work from one of the greats.
© 1999 Ed Johnson-Ott
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