No masterpiece, but a worthy farewell

Rating: 7/10 (12 July 2000)

An intriguing tale of a beautiful everycouple who have it all: perfect looks, perfect daughter, perfect Park Avenue apartment. A perfect life, that is, until the night the everyman discovers that his everywoman...isn't. The wife's shocking revelation of adulterous temptations prompt the husband to embark on a ill-fated nocturnal attempt to shed his everyman status. What follows is a nightmarish odyssey that is both disturbing and mesmerizing. Exhibiting his trademark simultaneous melding of drama, satire, horror and irony, "Eyes Wide Shut" is a fitting memorial to Stanley Kubrick's extraordinary career. The casting of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman may seem like a gimmick or marketing ploy, but they easily acquit themselves, particularly Kidman who impresses in her handful of scenes. Cruise may seem colorless in his role but that is the intent--he's a straight-shooting do-gooder whose self-control is painfully incongruous next to the depravity around him. His attempted membership in seediness is revoked at every turn, hampered by his impenetrable virtue. The much-discussed "orgy" sequence is actually pretty tame (compared to like material in much harsher R-rated fare) due to the ridiculous post-production insertion of computer-generated characters discreetly masking certain areas within the frame. Unfortunately, what should have been a truly potent sequence is now distilled into a mere suggestion of the darker side of fortune. (Why Kubrick was not more averse to its alteration is a mystery in itself.) "Eyes Wide Shut" is, alas, not the masterpiece one had hoped for. But who said it has to be? Good Kubrick beats great anyone-else any day!