Disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (6 August 2011)

I'm a Tom Cruise fan, but certainly not a Nicole Kidman fan; so I came to this movie with very mixed expectations. Stanley Kubrick is a director who enjoyed such acclaim since his 2001-Space Odyssey as to assume a position that is almost beyond criticism. In short, if one finds fault in his work; oneself is assumed to be at fault.
This movie certainly answers to his skill in terms of technical prowess. Yet the overall effect for me is disappointment. Cruise has invariably enjoyed a reputation as an action man - here he's anything but. Kidman's common femme-fatale persona is supplanted by a confusing amalgam of seductress and thinking-man's crumpet. For me, that doesn't quite wash either.
It seems as if Cruise is constantly on the edge of something more visceral, but he is never allowed to break out; whilst Kidman appears permanently frustrated by lack of opportunity to flaunt her ample charms. One can't help feeling that the dislocation of their personal relationship is being acted out on the screen.
This is a very dialogue-driven work, yet the script is never intelligent, witty or ironic enough to hold one's attention alone. So it drags from time to time. There are moments of incoherency. At one point, Cruise's character gate-crashes an intriguing little masked ball. There are hints of a demonic rite. But nothing comes of it. His cover is blown and he is warned to keep quiet or else. A piano-playing friend who tipped him off about the party disappears without trace under very suspicious circumstances. Meanwhile, a girl at the party who warns him he is under suspicion and that her life is at risk by just telling him, winds up dead also under suspicious circumstances. It looks like the plot is finally taking-off, yet nothing derives from these events. Why all the secrecy? It was only a glorified gang-bang after all. Another friend (who was there) warns him against any further inquiry in a crassly amateurish way, reasoning that his friend has probably just skipped town, and that the girl was just a drug-addicted prostitute anyway (she died from an overdose), so there was really nothing suspicious. But if they were in the habit of inviting itinerant druggie whores to their little get-togethers, how could they even hope for absolute secrecy? The story just didn't stack up.
I personally like ambiguous denouements just as much as neat summations. But this movie just seems to limp along presenting one idea after another to little plausible effect, ultimately drawing to conclusion for no other apparent reason than that the celluloid seemed to run out.
It is less than the sum of its parts, and they each seem to small enough purpose, Cruise, Kidman and Kubrick notwithstanding. A lavish presentation with nothing to say that is really worth hearing.