Kubrick's cop-out: there's no sting in the writing, and hardly a chill in the air...

Rating: 2/10 (5 January 2009)

"Eyes Wide Shut" looks great but never comes together. It has an impossibly long build-up which strives to tell us that a wealthy, seemingly happy married couple have cracks in their facade, which sends the husband "out into the night". Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick has shown tremendous talent with his actors, but even this auteur can't break through Tom Cruise's candy-coated shell (the movie is all about masks, but Cruise is wearing the biggest one, that of a movie star who can't escape his own inhibitions). Nicole Kidman is perhaps better, but her role is extremely weak (Kubrick has never had much affinity for his women). Does the picture hope to shock? To provoke? Is it a psychological thriller or a voyeur's fantasy? It seems to struggle with all these ingredients. In the end, it is mostly just dull and slow, one final glimpse of Kubrick revering himself and the potency of the heterosexual male. * from ****