Eyes Wide Shut Review

Rating: 8/10 (14 August 2011)

Eyes Wide Shut is a tense and creepy psycho-sexual thriller, that unfortunately is ultimately a disappointing experience. However, this is still a well acted and well directed film with a genuinely disturbing feel to it. Bill Harford (Tom Cruise), and his wife Alice (Nicole Kidman), are members of New York City's upper circle high-class society. Their relationship is going strong, until Alice recalls an event that happened while the family was on vacation, in which she thought about having an affair with a naval officer. The idea that his wife even considered such a thing makes Bill jealous and angry, so he decides to take things one step further and sets out to have a real affair of his own. Nicole Kidman is as good as ever in this film, but unfortunately you don't see much of her, as the story is centered around Tom Cruise's character, his night long escapade, and the resulting events. Tom Cruise does a fine job of playing the obsessed and hurt husband, who has blown his wife's fantasy entirely out of proportion in his mind, making it something much more unforgivable than it really was. You really feel bad for him, especially since his wife has hurt him so badly, and no matter how much he wants to get back at her, he can't seem to bring himself to do it. The direction is also fantastic. Kubrick gives the movie a very creepy feel, especially during the intense middle section. The way the movie is shot is great, and the musical score really adds to the overall effect. While both the acting and the direction were very good as expected, this movie isn't a classic for me because of the ending. This story of revenge and emotional as well as sexual fulfillment is very fascinating and quite original. It also builds up a huge amount of tension. Unfortunately, with so much set up and so many directions in which the movie could go, the movie just sort of fell flat towards the climax. There was no great twist at the end, and the story didn't tie itself together in an exciting way. The creepy atmosphere and the sense of true danger that the movie had built up was completely forgotten within the last 15 minutes. I was expecting the couple to realize that they had both made mistakes and forgive each other, as they did, but I also expected something extremely intense to happen beforehand. Overall, this movie features good acting and exceptional direction, but unfortunately it's extremely slowly paced and the story falls completely flat by the end. It's hard to even call the end a "climax" because not much happens at all. However I can still recommend at least a few viewings of this film, if only for the incredibly intense first 2 hours.