Good like a banana split?

Rating: Null/10 (20 July 1999)

I'll start out with what I didn't like, then I'll get to what I did. Today's analogy will be the banana split.
At the bottom of a banana split, you get a whole mess of goo that really isn't as good as it was before it melted. This I would consider to be the beginning of the film. Now, you can't have a banana split without the goo, but I like to keep it to a minimum. During one of the first scenes, namely the dance party, I was extremely worried that I was going to hate this film. I didn't, but it scared the hell out of me. That scene really didn't fit the rest of the movie, either, and a good thing, too. Kubrick over lighted the backdrops flooding the lens, and I felt the actor dancing with Nicole was really poor. Sadly, also, I didn't like Kidman's drunk behavior, especially as an introduction to this character who turns out to be nothing like that. Anyway, that was the only scene that really bothered me.
Then on most banana splits you've got the pineapple. I've never liked pineapple, but some people do. This film's pineapple flavoring mostly included, the score (if you can call it that) and the film. The score had some individual simply pounded on a piano key which really took me out of the film. I guess the point of the this was to keep me uncomfortable, but instead it separated me from the action on the screen and didn't add anything to it. Also, the film image would be clear and colorful, and then grainy, and then old looking... This may have been an artifact from the fact that the film was made over a period of several years or maybe it was purposeful, but it bothered me.
The last problem that you can have with banana splits is too much chocolate. I like chocolate, but not so much that by the time I'm done I am sick to death of chocolate. The pacing during the first hour or so. I'm not saying that what happened during the first hour isn't important, I just wanted it to be presented in a more steady fashion. For those that saw it, I would say everything after the word FIDELIO appears occurs at a great pace. I would venture to say I could cut 20 minutes out of the beginning of this film, show it to those of you that saw it last night and you could not tell me what had been removed.
Now, don't get me wrong, I like banana splits. In spite of the things I didn't like, the film works. Actually, I am impressed that it could overcome those above mentioned nasties and entertain me. I was always looking forward to what might happen next and was surprised when it did.
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were the two scopes of vanilla. There were some very powerful scenes and I believed them through every one of them. When Kidman is speaking of there past summer's holiday both her story telling and Tom's listening are intense. The most difficult scenes in this film were those between Tom and Nicole, and they played them beautifully.
Then there was the sex, the banana if you will (try not to read too much into this analogy, okay?). When you buy a banana split, you ever notice that they're advertising it as banana. The banana is a very small portion of the treat. This movie was so hyped because of the sex and nudity. Really, though, there is only one scene that goes further than most movies, and there is nothing disturbing about any of these scenes. It appears that no character is in a place that they do not wish to be. There is more sex in this film than, for example, "A Clockwork Orange", but it is always consensual and (I'd say) in good taste. Mostly, I believe they should not pump this movie as a sex film and instead as a serious drama.
And could Kubrick have ended this film with any other sentence, any other word? It just plops the cherry right on top of the whipped cream, don't it?
I give the film 3 stars out of 4. The film may not be suited towards some people, and those people are simply missing out (expand your horizons, people! :-) )