Frustrating! *Spoilers herein*

Rating: Null/10 (5 January 2003)

To put it plainly, I did not understand Eyes Wide Shut. But it's not because I am an uneducated film viewer or anything like that. Rather, it is because there was nothing to understand. The movie starts off with a shot of an undressed Kidman and revolves around sex and lust for the first forty five minutes or so. Then we have about an hour of nothing, an adventure that Cruise embarks on that leads us to the final scene, which is Kidman delivering the last few lines: "You know what we have to do now? F*ck." The movie remains one dimensional, never exploring any of the characters Cruise meets along the way, such as Leelee Sobieski's nyphomaniac teenager, and her father her approves, or Domino, the HIV-positive prostitute. Perhaps if the film began exploring some of these much more interesting characters, it would have turned into an interesting, provocative film. Instead, the film drags on for an hour only to result in the same thing we open up to. Every other scene has a nude woman and overall, it gets to be too much: the orgy, the models, the reoccuring scene of Kidman and the naval officer that Cruise keeps seeing in his head ... it's overwhelming.
The acting is nothing special at all. Kidman's fluttery laugh bothered me, and Cruise's blank stare (is he discovering something? is he coming to a realization? what are we gaining by looking at his blank face??), which was the center of too many scenes, is, quite frankly, boring.
The only reason to see this movie is because of the color scheme. Like in Amelie, Kubrick focused on two main colors for the entire movie (a golden glow and a bright blue), and put in occasional bright reds and purples. Also, notice the always-apparent Christmas tree, in practically every apartment or store.
This is an extremely slow movie. It is not enjoyable, and leaves the viewer confused and exasperated. It seems as though everyone was cast on a physical basis alone: Kidman and Cruise do make a beautiful couple, and all of the women are at least half nude throughout the entire film. But the talent is lacking. I recommend an earlier Kubrick, especially The Killing. They are much better than this piece of a "sexual thriller."