the best torture I've ever felt...

Rating: Null/10 (28 July 1999)

It seems to me that I had a fortunate experience with this movie, unlike other people. I saw the movie in a nice theater with less than half of its seats filled, so the rest of the audience's reaction didn't affect me. It turned out that from beginning to end I was completely engrossed. Perhaps my faint-of-heartness concerning extramarital sex is really what made the movie for me. Rather than being repulsed, bored, or irritated, I was enraptured by the characters and the unfolding paths that lay before Cruise, who stumbled along (sometimes running eagerly) to the end of his dreamy,nocturnal ride.
I loved this movie. The criticisms of the wooden acting and terrible premise are criticisms of what I think are actually *great* about the movie. Kidman and Cruise did exquisite jobs--for some reason I imagine young, rich married couples in New York City to be just like them (in a Stanley Kubrick context anyway). I don't think the story is bad because it is unconventional, therefore whatever it may be missing isn't needed. The storyline--man okay, man find out something bad, man not okay, man go for a walk--is simple enough to provide room for the audience to study the character himself. The movie is nothing about a brothel conspiracy, it's nothing about the weird things that go on in the city, it's nothing about sexual exploration--it's about a basically good man and how a specific instance, no matter how small it was, can throw a man way out of balance so that his perception of things is completely changed. The plight of this man throughout the movie goes from dealing with the sudden change of his perception to accepting and enjoying his perception and finally to realizing his vertigo and striving for the ultimately righteous and moral perception.
This movie is amazing. I'd say there's a 50 percent chance you'd hate it and a 50 percent chance you'd love it. Risk the seven bucks because it's absolutely STUNNING on the silver screen and it simply won't be the same on video.