Kubrick's Last Laugh

Rating: Null/10 (10 January 2008)

When humans dream their logic system goes to sleep and things become disjointed and illogical. Visions that are threatening and inviting or are stalking or are just plain illogical and unconnected are dominant throughout our dreams and throughout this film. Like a dream the film starts at night and ends in the morning. All the characters are shallow-layered. Now keep an eye on the word shallow-layered because there is hidden meaning to that. Involved relationships are quite layered like an onion with very fine texture that has moods that can shift and spin around in an instant. Moods are constantly shifting around in this film.
No place is there a relationship like one wishes with a cashier at a grocery store where one can bring the goods, plump down the money and just leave. Those can be humans' wishes but even at the cashier they wind up being more involved with layers that build up tensions and shifting moods.
Kubrick uses sexual images only as a decoy. These "masks" make the audience chase after the wrong area, carrying their own delusions. Even the smoking of dope by Kidman and Cruise is a part of the mask. Humans are never more self-deceiving than when they are either high on dope or drunk.
In most all of the scenes the backdrops keep changing just like a magician has his assistants constantly doing the dirty work while his moves are only misleading deceptions.
There is a mail pickup box with a distinct gang tagging on it in this film. The trouble is that it shows up in 3 places as if it had legs. It is located in front of the Rainbow Costume shop, in front of the hotel where Dr. Bill investigated the whereabouts of Nick Nightengale, and it is located again in front of a suite and leather shop when Dr. Bill is being followed on foot.
Another mailbox grows legs. It disappears completely from the film. It was located just about 30 feet to the right of the Rainbow Costume shop and can be seen right as Dr. Bill pays his cab fare. He backs away from the cab and then you can see it. When Dr. Bill returns his costume the mailbox disappears just as his mask seemed to.
Also, in the background the address number sequences on the shops make no sense. One can observe them during as Dr. Bill is followed on foot. The numbers on the buildings on one side of the street progress from 20 to 21 to 22 to 23, etc. Directly on the opposite side of the street the numbers increase from 30 to 31 to 32 to 33,etc. Again this makes no sense. Other mailboxes appear and their proximity to one another are nonsensical. But that is what happens when humans dream.
A window air conditioner disappears in moments after characters return to a room. Dr. Bill's office wall is rearranged where diplomas replace paintings that were there earlier. The road to the night club house has changed its journey. The journey exits on an expressway ramp at night and that same exit is bypassed in the day. The daytime approach is from the opposite direction from the evening approach. Many actions take place in mirrors and reflections with backs turned, just as backs can be turned in dreams.
Colors play roles that match up with the moods of the scenes. Even some of the rooms change color when characters re-enter with changing moods to match. It even seems that the promotion of the film and all the actors reactions may have been a mask, something they agreed to do for Kubrick so that even his most loyal followers would be convinced that he made a dud out of his last film. He seems to have had the last laugh on an audience that had its eyes wide open to the deceptions but shut closed to what is really just an lucid dream.
Kubrick's widow dropped the hint of the film's meaning right before its release and no one was listening. She said the film's main message was fear, deceptions and dreams. She was right.
It was the first thought on every adult's mind that this film should not be seen by too young of a viewer. We have a fear of what it might do to such an impressionable mind. We, the audience, were the main characters. The advertisement of the film was a deception to throw us off and played a major masking role and the whole film was a dream.
Was this Kubrick's best? I think so.