Kubrickian

Rating: Null/10 (23 July 1999)

I kept thinking of Stanley Kubrick's "2001" as I watched this, his final film -- both visually and thematically. "Eyes Wide Shut" comes at the end of Kubrick's career, after all, and certainly would have been the film released closest to the year in which the earlier movie was set. As such, it provides us the opportunity to consider Kubrick's, ahem, evolution as a filmmaker.
Between the two works, Kubrick seems to suggest mankind hasn't advanced very far from his primal animal nature. Civilization started with a brutal boning in "2001" and, well, forgive the crudeness of the pun and analogy, but "Eyes Wide Shut" shows humanity doing pretty much the same thing -- but trying to attach the veneer of culture to it through fancy ritual.
Yes, there is a fair amount of sex in this movie, but it is Kubrick sex -- which is to say, not that sexy, and probably not about the sex.
In short, it's a thought-provoking movie; not perfect, perhaps, but certainly worth seeing.