OK time for a film reivew and I've decided to go for a slightly different choice which is Stanley Kubrick's last film Eyes Wide Shut, which he died shortly after its completion back in 1999. The film stars the then celebrity film couple, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman and the film is very much centred on them throughout and their fantasies. But anyway let's have a look at the plot...
The film is set in New York and focuses on a young thirty something couple, Dr Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) and his wife Alice (Nicole Kidman) who are invited to a party by one of Bill's patients, the wealthy Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack). At the party both Bill and Alice flirt with other people, as Alice dances with a sauve middle aged Hungarian man (Sky Du Mont) and Bill is tempted by two models. Bill however is soon lead away upstairs to meet Victor who has a naked young girl who has overdosed on a speedball of heroin and coke, whom Bill eventually brings around, and Victor asks Bill to keep the incident under wraps which he agrees to. Later that evening as Bill and Alice go home they share a marijuana joint and end up having a row where Alice soon confides that she had a fantasy about a naval officer whom she once saw on a vacation they had. At this point Bill receives a phone call as the father of one of his female friends (played by Marie Richardson) has died, and as he goes over to her house she becomes upset and impulsively kisses Bill but he resists and tells her she doesn't know what she is saying, just before her fiance comes into the room, Bill then leaves.
Bill afterwards walks the streets, still disturbed by the fantasy that Alice has told him about, and he soon meets a prostitute named Domino (Vinessa Shaw) who takes him back to her apartment, where they share an awkward kiss, but Bill receives a call from Alice and he decides to leave, but pays Domino for her time. Bill continues to walk the streets and comes along a nightclub where he sees the name of an old friend from his medical school days, Nick Nightingale (Todd Field) whom he had seen at Zeigler's party. Bill goes inside and speaks to Nick who tells him he has another gig later that night and he is required to play blindfolded, but he had previously done a similar gig where he saw beautiful women who were masked. Intruiged by this Bill get's Nick to tell him where the party is held, and Nick tells him he would need to wear a costume and a mask. Bill rents a costume and a mask from an eccentric costume store owner, Milich (Rabe Serbedzija) who catches his young daughter (Leelee Sobieski) with two Japanese men in the store while they are there. Bill then attends the party wearing his costume and mask and he sees there are many masked people with cloaks, and many naked women, who are in the middle of a sexual riutal ceremony, and they are paired off with men and they soon engage in sex. Bill soon wanders around the party and is taken by a women who tells her he should leave immediately is he is in great danger. Bill is soon confronted by the leader of the ceremony who demands he remove his mask, which he does and the leader insists he remove his clothes, but the masked woman prevents this and says she will offer herself as a sacrifice so Bill can be released, which the leader accepts. Bill then returns home, but the next he starts to encounter some strange events that may have a strong impact on his life...
As Kubrick's swansong, Eyes Wide Shut is a fine film, although in alot of people's eyes it wasn't the film that they hoped it would be as Kubrick's last. But despite that Eyes Wide Shut has alot going for it, and it was a rather unusual choice for Kubrick to make an adaptation of the short novel Dream story, written by Arthur Schnitzler, but with everything he did, Kubrick certainly made this adaptation his own. Kubrick also due to his fear of flying, shot the entire film at Pinewood studios and he had his crew build a replica of Greenwich village in New York, where he went as far as sending his workmen over to measure the width of the streets and the location of newspaper stands! And naturally during the production Kubrick was highly secretive as he always during his films.
And it has to be said that Eyes Wide Shut's biggest strengths simply come from the performances, and the two leads are both excellent. And while I'm not Tom Cruise's biggest fan I think his performance is very good as the kind and humane Bill Harford, who at once a loving husband and then a frustrated man, shocked by his wife's revelation of her fantasy to give up their marriage just so she could have that naval officer, which leads him on his lurid journey, where he get's caught up in a mystery. Nicole Kidman is if anything even better than Cruise and her scene where she argues with Bill while stoned is a real highlight, as is the scene where she sobs and tells him of her erotic dream of having sex with so many different men. You can also clearly see that they are (well at the time) a loving couple which comes across in the film (before it all went pear shaped of course!) really well. Kidman also get's the distinct honour of saying the last ever line in Kubrick's last film, and the last word interestingly enough is "fuck". Just like Kubrick to go out on a four letter word!
The supporting cast are also very good with director/actor Sydney Pollack giving an excellent performance as the wealthy Victor Zeigler who is clearly involved in all the sex parties and toward the end he shares an excellent, albeit drawn out scene with Cruise where he shares his revelation with Bill that he realises he was at the party. Pollack also get's some great dialogue as he speaks to Bill and tells him how Nick Nightingale got into trouble for telling him about the party "OK so he got a slap on the wrist, that's less than what he deserves, anyway he's probably back home banging Mrs Nick!". He also get's another really good line in that scene where he says to Bill "Come on, nobody killed anyone, someone dies, it happens all the time, life goes on until it doesn't, but we both know that, don't we?". Rabe Serbedzija also gives a really good and amusing performance as Milich the eccentric costume store owner, who's young teenage daughter is involve in hanky panky with a couple of Japanese men. Rabe has quite a few funny lines where he berates the men "gentlemen, have you no sense of deceny?! Can't you see that she is a child?!". Yet the next day when Bill returns he makes a suggestive offer to Bill that he could offer up his daughter as a sexual favour, as he says "if there is anything you want, anything at all, it need'nt be a costume". And lastly I will mentioned Todd Field as Nick Nightingale who does a good enough job as Bill's old friend, and Alan Cumming provides an amusing cameo performance as a camp hotel desk clerk.
However it has to be said that Eyes Wide Shut isn't perfect, and it has its flaws, starting with the whole mystery section of the film, where after witnessing the sex party at the mansion, Bill get's embroiled in a mystery over the dead prostitute and he is followed and receives warnings from an unnamed man. At this point it seems like it is leading to something but the whole thing is killed when (PLOT SPOILER) when Bill goes to see Zeigler who later tells him the whole thing was a fake and a charade, designed to keep him quiet, and at the point the whole thing seems pointless. One or two of the scenes are also a little bit cringeworthy to watch, especially the scene where the bereaved friend of Bill's played by Marie Richardson kisses him and gushes by saying "I love you, I love you!" out of the blue, its just a silly moment in the film where this woman decides out of grief to give up on her current relationship. The sex orgy scene is also a bit silly and in typical Kubrick fashion is not that erotic, but more clinical to watch, as the masked men and women have sex (although the 69 sex bit with the two women is not bad!) at the party. The film's length is also a bit problematic at times as some of the scenes are really long and painfully drawn out, and although Bill's scene witth Zeigler near the end of the film is one of the best, Kubrick really stretches out the pauses in dialogue just that bit too far, which threatens to ruin it. And finally the repetitive use of Gyorgi Ligeti's "Musica Ricerta" becomes a bit tiresome after a while as its supposed to add to the tension in certain scenes but if anything it detracts from it.
All that aside though however direction wise Kubrick does a great job here, and despite any problems with pacing he has put together an excellent film which features an immaculate production and terrific set design (as I already mentioned). The soundtrack, despite the repetitive use of the Ligeti track, is also very good and Kubrick chooses fine pieces, starting with Dimitri Shostaskovich's "Suite for variety stage orchestra" used at the start of the film and at the end, as well Chris Isaak's "Baby did a bad, bad thing". And Kubrick hired English composer Jocelyn Pook who provides some excellent original music for the film, which is featured mainly in the orgy scenes at the party, one of the standouts being a track "migrations" used in the scene where Bill wanders around the party watching the carnal activities.
So that's it for my look at Eyes wide shut, which is a very good end to a magnificent film career for Stanley Kubrick, and while its not one of his greatest films, it saw him go out in fine style, and was fitting reminder of one of America's greatest filmmakers.
And with that I shall lie it right there.
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