It's about love and commitment, not sex

Rating: 8/10 (27 June 2004)

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in steamy scenes is the hype that
sold this film, along with the promise of nearly hard-core porn in
an artsy Stanley Kubrick production. At least in this American
version (I've read the European edition is more explicit) the sex is
not actually that graphic, although Nicole does use the `f" word a
lot. But that's not really the core of this film at all. Cruise and
Kidman play a couple, Dr. Bill and Alice Hartford, who are nicely
settled into their nine-year marriage and young daughter, but, we
find, they fantasize about adventure and forbidden sexual territory.
It starts with Alice's indirect and maddening musings about the
relationship which Bill perceives as dissatisfaction and criticism,
but after a chance meeting with an old med school chum, he
discovers an occultish sex club that pushes the limits of reality and
terror. Behind it is really a morality tale that, after all, makes a
strong statement about love and commitment. This nearly
three-hour long production might have been improved by tighter
editing, but it is not at all tedious, and the overall effect is powerful
and memorable. I rated it 8 out of 10.