Empty, dull and painstakingly boring. A wasted opportunity for all concerned.

Rating: 7/10 (11 April 2003)

The plot line sounded very good for this film. A dreamy, erotic oddessy through Manhattan's seedy underworld. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman are the main stars. The film's atmospheric and moody teaser trailers made `Eyes Wide Shut' look a lot better than it actually was. The real result is subtle, boring drivel that only amounts to being a pathetic excuse for cheap pornography.
I've never been a fan of Stanley Kubrick's movies and his last piece of completed work hasn't impressed me. There is no creativity in `Eyes Wide Shut', and nothing stands out among the evident dross. Yet people still call this man a genius; the mind boggles. Perhaps the film would have been much better had it been someone else, maybe Martin Scorsese. He's created a hellish yet vivid portrayal of New York in the past and I think he would have done a much better job.
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's last pairing is indeed they're worst. The main problem is that any less popular actors could have easily replaced them. The chemistry between the two is convincing and ultimately believable, but they know that they could do with better material than this.

The pedestrian pace that the film takes and the slow, dull narrative fail to help it either. At 162 minutes, the plot and much-to-subtle dialogue are insufficient for it's length. Sure, Nicole Kidman looks good in her birthday suit, but there's little else good to remember about it. When it tries to be inventive it just ends up being plain weird. Very little can compensate for the misery and despair that it digs itself into.
While it is an oddly interesting movie experience it's not one that you will have good memories of. Fans of Kubrick's earlier work might respect it, but most normal people will find this as repulsive as the south end of a magnet. For me `Eyes Wide Shut' is an overlong and hopeless misfire. 4.6/10.