Sex and affection: can they be successfully combined?

Rating: Null/10 (9 September 2002)

In Greek mythology, Zeus allegedly got into an argument with his wife, Hera, over which gender was more sexual, male or female; so, he took a god and changed his sex, and then asked for a comparison. Zeus wasn't happy with the answer: the female of the species, the god reported, far surpassed the male, both in terms of desire, and ability.
Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut is narrowly focused on this issue of female sexuality. In fact, its laser-beam dedication to the issue of feminine sexual desire is so unwavering that it's easy to be confused by its obsessive single-mindedness. Although most of the movie's action follows Bill (Tom Cruise) as he struggles with jealousy over his wife's attraction to other men, it's really about her: Alice (Nicole Kidman) literally defines his reality through her own. And her reality is produced, not by her conscious will, but by the depths of her feminine sexuality, buried so deeply and so powerfully within the libidinous pre-conscious brain that her waking awareness is but a shadow image of it.
Bill's world is thrown into chaos when, high on pot, Alice's true nature comes smashing through her darkest depths to the light of consciousness. Discussing infidelity, he tells her that he's never been jealous of her because she `would never be unfaithful.' She replies, sarcastically, `You're awfully sure of yourself, aren't you?' Bill answers, confidently, `No, I'm sure of you.' As a man, I feel the object ownership inherent in Bill's words. And then Alice destroys Bill's somnambulistic, fragile, secure, culturally accepted and encouraged little lie, baring her lustful soul to him with a true confession. With sultry and utterly visceral derision, Alice tells him, `If you men only knew.'
Freud wrote about the difficulty of uniting two currents of feeling: the tender, affectionate feelings, with the sensual ones. And that's the central dilemma of Eyes Wide Shut. The real question is not whether Bill will get over his jealousy: it's whether Alice can integrate both types of feeling into her personality, and literally redeem their relationship as the more powerfully sexual of the two. The very last words of the movie, spoken by Alice, leave no doubt.