Good, but hopelessly flawed.

Rating: 6/10 (30 March 2001)

I'm not a Kubrick fan. I'm not going to bend over backwards to praise this movie because I still feel the man is in love with his own directing style. Still, this movie is good.
It's not great, but it's good.
There's real meaning and wisdom in this movie and metaphor aplenty. It isn't for everyone but I felt it was intelligent and if you get it, you'll like it. Sydney Pollack's performance seems to be the best one in the movie, and for once, I don't disagree with Kubrick's direction. For the most part.
One of the problems is the movie is horribly paced and could have ended at 100 minutes instead of 158. It tacks on an extra hour of basically unnecessary story. Some of it is important, such as how the movie begins starkly likening unsafe sex to death. It's well-done, provocative, and intelligent. But it's too long.
Another issue I have with the movie is with the two stars, Cruise and Kidman. There isn't much chemistry between them and whenever they're close to each other, it has this dry "yeah yeah, we've done this before" feeling to it. No real passion. Cruise proves once and for all in this picture that he cannot act. He is incapable of it. He gives a hollow performance comparable to Christian Bale's in "American Psycho." The difference here is that Bale's was intentional and effective, whereas Cruise's is simply empty and inept. Kidman seemed to ham it up a little too much for my tastes when she was intoxicated in this movie, and for the rest of the movie did her very best "I wanna be Julianne Moore" impression. We could have had better performances and more amiable characters if they'd actually cast Christian Bale and Julianne Moore. Cruise's Dr. Harford is weak and spineless; Kidman's Alice Harford is vile and sadistic.
I think another thing that bothered me about this movie was how gratuitous some of the nudity was. A lot of it, such as Alice Harford undressing in the opening credits, was unnecessary. I'm a man, I like naked ladies, but the movie bordered on gratuitous at points. If you want to make a statement, don't throttle it with eye candy.
Ultimately a great deal of the plot is grossly unrealistic and exceedingly hard to swallow. You'll have trouble believing most of it.
But with all that's wrong with Eyes Wide Shut, there's still a very real, very potent story and message in it. I don't know what exactly it is to assimilate from this movie, but you will feel something from it.
I just wish this story had been given more capable hands to mold it. Kubrick, Kidman, and Cruise have nearly ruined what could have been a much better movie.
I give it a 6/10. An A for effort, D for execution.