Something of a departure

Rating: 7/10 (19 July 1999)

Having only recently (within the last year or so) become a rabid admirer of Kubrick's work, I was frothing at the prospect of actually seeing one of his films on the big screen. And even the rush I felt as I watched the big yellow words "Star Wars" zoom away on The Phantom Menace's opening night pales in comparison to what I was going through in the minutes before this, Kubrick's final release, unspooled before me. Roughly an hour later, though, I had pretty much forgotten about the great director and settled into the depths of William Harford's mind and conflicts. While it lasts, this movie completely immerses its audience. But somehow, Eyes Wide Shut isn't like Kubrick at all; while his stories usually only use characters to prove a point or make some statement about society, this film attempts to achieve psychological realism in its portrayal of a doctor's sexual escapades and their effects on his marriage. It's as though the whole movie is just one giant experiment, like Kubrick wanted to see if he could really create a believable human character. There's still meaning and messages and all that good stuff, but they seem tacked on to the complicated plot and occasionally shocking sexual imagery (which was shamelessly softened to avoid an NC-17 after Kubrick's death by the use of Austin Powers-esque "covering" techniques-- let's pray to God they give us the original version on video). It's a decent movie in and of itself, but a far cry from 2001 or A Clockwork Orange.