Eyes
Wide Shut
(1999)
Rated: R
Runtime: 2 Hours and 39Minutes
Reviewer: Erik
Grade: D+A new friend I made on the Internet Movie Database told me I had to watch this. I respect his opinion on movies, and so I rented it the day it came out. I wanted to like this movie. I really did. But it just didn't happen.
I've never been one to go crazy about Kubrick. Admittedly, I haven't seen most (or even half) of his movies, but the ones I've seen did little to impress me. But I figured I should give him another shot. The man's a genius, people say. So, what the hell...
Anyways, the movie is about Dr. William Harford (Tom Cruise) and his wife Alice (Nicole Kidman) and how a confession one night turns their marriage upside down. After smoking some pot, Alice picks a fight with William, endlessly badgering him about fidelity and even how he feels when examining a naked female patient. Though nobody asked, Alice confesses that she once saw a man who she wanted so badly, she was ready to give up her husband, daughter and everything they had just to be with him. Of course, it never materialized.
This sends the jealous William off into the NYC streets where he runs into one possible sexual escapade after another. He comes close to taking that step a few times, but never quite crosses the line. He ends up in a variety of places: Alone with the daughter of one of his patients, alone with a hooker, with a costumer shop owner whose daughter is doing some naughty things and at an upper-class orgy although he hasn't been invited.
It's discovered at the party that he hasn't been invited and a masked woman rescues him by throwing herself at the mercy of those in charge. Thus ends William's night.
But problems continue. Whatever happened to the woman who sacrificed herself for him? And whatever happened to the man who gave William the information he needed to sneak into the party? And why is William being followed? And will his wife ever find out?
My problems with the film are numerous:
Why Alice picks the fight in the first place is beyond me. Watch the scene and if you can honestly say she's being the SLIGHTEST bit reasonable, you're probably a little unbalanced. Also, being married, I couldn't drink enough alcohol to get me to say the things she says to him, and hurt him that way. This goes for a scene later in the movie, where Alice tells him about a dream she had.
The plot. There is none, which doesn't exactly make a movie bad in my book. But I sat through the whole movie, waiting to end up somewhere and we don't. Plotless is fine, pointless is not.
If the movie is really an attempt to either a) get us to think about our own sexuality or b) get us to realize what "hazards" lie out there if you look hard enough, then this movie just fails to connect. I know enough about my own sexuality and I know to stay away from things that are tempting or hazardous. The message is unclear to me.
Things get rectified a little too easily in the end. The last line of the movie really had me embarrassed for those involved.
The movie is slow. I have no problem with a slow pace, provided I'm entertained and I feel the movie is going somewhere.
On the flipside, a few things kept me interested for periods of time. Kubrick's visual work is great. And William's romp through the city provided for some fun. I really got the idea that maybe the storyline would evolve around whether or not William would actually go through with his selfish desires and how he'd settle things with his wife. Unfortunately, it didn't.
If you "get" this film, more power to you. You are entitled to look at me and laugh at my inferior brainpower. But I'm committed to analyzing a movie thoroughly and I don't give up on them easily. After doing all that, I'm really not sure what I watched.