A long, strange trip

Rating: 6/10 (12 May 2011)

Stanley Kubrick's last film, a mere twelve years after his previous one. Bringing Eyes Wide Shut to the screen was a long, strange trip for Kubrick. The idea had been floating around inside his head for many, many years. So much preparation went into it. When shooting finally began it seemed as if it would never end, the noted perfectionist director presiding over one of the longest film shoots ever. And after all of this what was the one thing Kubrick needed most of all? More time. The first cut he produced surely would not have been the end product. The noted tinkerer would have surely been tweaking his film right up to its release date. But death robbed him of that opportunity. And left his final film a bit messy. With some clear, rather easy fixes Eyes Wide Shut could have been a real success. But Kubrick wasn't around to patch it together. And the result is a film which is a bit of a letdown.
Eyes Wide Shut is often labeled an erotic thriller. It's a label which doesn't fit. There's nothing particularly erotic about it. Unfortunately not much thrilling either. It's a story of Dr. Bill Harford's journey into a bizarre sexual underground, a world in which he clearly does not belong. What does Bill hope to find? He's sent careening along this path by the revelation that his wife fantasized about cheating on him. Just thought about it, she didn't actually do anything. And this throws Bill completely for a loop. Which strains credulity a bit as you would think the seemingly grounded doctor should be able to handle this revelation which isn't much of a revelation at all. Instead he goes out looking for...something. He doesn't really know what. What he finds himself caught up in is not at all what he bargained for.
There's a sense of mystery to Bill's journey, especially once he stumbles his way inside a bizarre sexual cult. Yes, it's that scene, the scene which got all the attention when the movie was released. The infinitely bizarre, mysterious orgy scene. What the heck is going on here? Who are these people? And what price will Bill pay for his intrusion? The tension in this sequence is thick. But ultimately, much like the movie as a whole, it fizzles out with a very anticlimactic feel. There are more mysteries and possible conspiracies to come but by this point in the movie we'd really like Kubrick to make some sense of all of this. And he never really manages to do so satisfactorily. The movie is very slowly paced. A long, at times laborious, trip. And the ending falls rather flat. With more time to work on the film Kubrick may well have been able to tighten things up. The ending was never really going to work but if he got to that ending in a different way, with a little more energy driving the film forward, the overall experience would have been much improved. As it is there are enough good things here to remind you why Kubrick was so revered but his final film falls disappointingly short of greatness.
Getting this film made was a long, hard journey for Kubrick. And for his stars. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman put a lot into this movie. Cruise is to be commended, his portrayal of Bill is quite good. In playing Bill's wife Kidman hams it up a bit, especially in early scenes where she's drunk or stoned. But she has some good moments too before her character essentially gets out of the way and cedes the stage to Cruise's Bill and his strange journey of discovery. Cruise is really left to carry the film largely by himself, the story belongs to his character. The character doesn't always convince, Bill does some things which quite frankly it is very hard to see a man in his position doing. But Cruise does convince, you buy him as the character even as you question many of the things the character is doing. Kidman is OK with what little she is given to do, Sydney Pollack makes a good impression in a supporting role, but the film really is Cruise's. And Kubrick's of course. The great director's swan song is not exactly what you, or probably he, would have hoped. The story of the making of Eyes Wide Shut was a long, strange one. The movie itself is ultimately a long, strange one. It has its moments but it never quite all comes together.