A nice artistic vision, and provocative, kinky calling card to a very long, prosperous and effective career.

Rating: 9/10 (19 July 1999)

It's hard for me to really describe Eyes Wide Shut. I see LOTS of films ranging from mindless to avante garde, but I am generally able to come to a focused take on them as a film. But after leaving Eyes Wide Shut I could only describe it as being like a giant, complex painting hanging in an empty gallery. I feel as though I apprached this hanging painting and gazed into it for 3 hours paying sharp attention to each and every minute detail. The outcome? This film is an amazing piece of work. I found its message of the possible evils of sexual, how do we say, experimentation, liberation (any term lacking better words) to be perfectly clear from start to finish. Though many of those I attended the film with found absolutely no point in what they were watching, I found that its point was perfectly clear. It is so hard to fully describe how I feel about this film. It is not that I thought the acting was great. I thought Tom Cruise (and I like Cruise's work) wasn't so perfect for the part. He had the boyish looks to pull off his character's youthful, naive struggle. But overall he was somewhat lacking the depth to fully delve into such a complex character. Nicole Kidman on the other hand, I found to be a low-point in the film. I thought her performance was at times laughably bad and over-the-top. How annoying and self-centered can one girl be after drinking some champagne or smoking a little pot? Her character had surprisingly little film time, and after seeing the film it is quite understandable why she was placed on the back burner. Aside from the acting, I didn't think the writing was of any spectacular caliber either. But what's amazing about Eyes Wide Shut is that the story and mostly Kubrick's portrayal of that story easily overcome any of the film's other shortcomings. I dunno...I don't want to get caught in a tangent describing each individual aspect. What does need mentioning is the filmd Carnival-like 'Poe-esque' orgy scene. Truly memorable, guaranteed to go down in film-history. It was one of the most oddly-horrifying scenes I have witnessed. In closing, I can just say again that the film was an incredible artistic portrayal, not meant to entertain all, but to paint a vivid picture of a story of greed, desire, and mistrust.