An illustrious career ends, sadly, with a dud

Rating: 4/10 (14 May 2000)

Last night I finally saw "Eyes Wide Shut." The only good thing I can say is that it is often visually stunning (though nowhere near "A Clockwork Orange"). The story, moving at a glacial pace, was peculiarly uninvolving. The attempt to convey a sense of nightmarish, hallucinatory dread ended up being merely ponderous and ludicrous (especially in the infamous orgy scene; Kubrick seems to have had a most peculiar idea of forbidden sexual adventure in 1990s New York). The dialogue, much of the time, was banal beyond belief, and the acting was mediocre at best -- with Sydney Pollack as Victor Ziegler and Marie Richardson as Marion the only two exceptions. I've never thought much of Tom Cruise as an actor, but he was far better in "The Firm" -- here, you never for a moment forget that you're looking at Tom Cruise pretending to be a doctor. Nicole Kidman was better, but in the key scene where she confesses to having lusted for another man, her delivery was somehow very unconvincing.
The basic concept -- a husband and wife rediscovering their passionate erotic connection through (unconsummated) sexual experimentation outside their marriage -- is interesting enough. But for it to work, the viewer must care for the protagonists and for their marriage (which EWS fails to achieve), and there must be real onscreen chemistry between them (which is completely absent here). There is, in fact, no eroticism in the film at all, extramarital or marital; of course, Kubrick has always been a very cold and anti-sensual director (post-"Lolita," at least), so maybe this just wasn't the right film for him to make.
Kubrick has made some of this century's true cinematic masterpieces -- "Paths of Glory," "Dr. Strangelove," "A Clockwork Orange" -- and other superb films such as "Lolita" and "Full Metal Jacket." (I've never cared much for "The Shining.") This is not the film he will be remembered by.