The Mountain has labored and brought forth a Mouse

Rating: 5/10 (20 July 1999)

EWS is an unfortunately incoherent adaptation of a book whose main ideas are a half-century behind the times. Kubrick applies his mighty skills to making a movie out of it, but is betrayed by his own lack of focus. This main fault is compounded by shaky performances by Kidman, who seems to be doing "The Three Faces Of Alice" and Cruise, who stares stoicly or covers his face whenever called upon to express emotion (except once when he sobs). In addition, there is the weakly obvious screen-play (which Kubrick co-wrote), and a leaden pace and self-indulgent editing that makes it seem even longer than it's nearly three hours. The film is one of Kubrick's least successful efforts, but given the level of his work, it's still better than most recent films, and worth a look. For more detail, see my review at The Nedpages, under the external reviews link in IMDb.