Life Is But a (Waking) Dream

Rating: 8/10 (27 April 2009)

And that is precisely Bill Harford's life, from the moment Marion kisses him at her father's deathbed to his opening a beer in his kitchen in the wee small hours before entering his bedroom and spotting the Venetian mask next to his sleeping wife Alice.
Go ahead, try it: Remove all that transpires between these moments. Remove even the mask. Fill in with what you like, or leave it blank. A plot will remain, arguably coherent, likely not as visually arresting, driven or interesting, but unquestionably a context in which to try to understand the prelude and possible coda to a crisis in the relationship between married and child-rearing urban professionals. We know these people, even if they smoke pot and listen to Shostakovich.
I've not since seen Tom Cruise so vulnerable or Nicole Kidman so quietly terrifying. Their off-screen relationship, during and after, has no bearing, for this is Stanley Kubrick's waking dream, from the torpor of everyday life in defense of the relentless pursuit of the fleeting and superficial, to the gradual surrender to a visceral, sensual, claustrophobic and candy-colored alternate reality, to eyes forced unwillingly wide open. And we are all made welcome to it, whether we want to or not and whether we like it or not.
And when you suddenly awake from a vivid and intensely pleasurable dream, do you not consciously strive to revive, re-create and re-enter it? Bill Harford tries repeatedly.
They don't make movies like this any more. I am convinced that for the most part they've stopped trying. Kubrick is doubtless judged by his more famous movies, but such is the true measure of his genius. No other film director convinced me to pay as much attention to what appeared on-screen or want one or more re-viewings to try to see what I'd missed. I wish he was still filming though full well realize I'd likely still await the final cut...
I am also convinced Kubrick knew he was dying. The actors' lines are his own. Study his final ruminations on the species in this light. The man was no emotional recluse and could not have died alone.