Kubrick's last hurrah

Rating: 8/10 (28 July 2010)

Just as he did in A Clockwork Orange (1971), Kubrick enjoys putting a lot of female nudity in this movie and still keeps it above the level of porn. There's some unnecessary nudity in Eyes Wide Shut- a female patient passed out naked, a topless woman being examined by her doctor. Yet the film is beautifully shot, almost as hypnotic and surreal as Kubrick's The Shining, and the story is a tasteful, believable look at exotic sexual indiscretions.
The movie is basically about a doctor (Tom Cruise) who, behind his wife's back, seeks out a prostitute and later sneaks into an orgy. However, the mysterious masked participants know he doesn't belong there and the doctor may be in danger.
The main problem with this movie is the casting of Tom Cruise. I just did not buy him as a doctor, particularly with his dumb "look at me, I'm so cute" smile. Nicole Kidman is his wife, both in real life and in the movie. She does better than Cruise and she's nice to look at (As a kid, I had a crush on her after Batman Forever), but she actually isn't in the movie that much. The movie explains some things to us, or so it seems (who the lady who came to the doctor's aid was, and why she died), but keeps other things mysterious, particularly the meaning of the orgy and the identity of its participants. It's not the most intriguing thing I've seen but it's not without worth. A fine movie to end a distinguished career with.