Fitting epitaph to a Master's legacy.

Rating: Null/10 (17 August 1999)

Even though it had been speculated that Stanley Kubrick had at least one more film up his sleeve that he was preparing after "Eyes Wide Shut," a science fiction parable called "AI," there are many motifs and hidden treasures in "Eyes" to suggest that he had a realization that this magnificent film may in fact be his swan song to the world as he knew it. The ending of the film, which takes place at a toy story around Christmas, shows the Hartfords - played by Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, along with their young daughter - summarizing their carnival ride into hell as they come to grips with their subconscious desires to roam sexually. This scene hits the jackpot as it not only boils all human behavior down to one primal motive - sex - but it seems to act as a precursor to a future world of "impersonal robots" or AI, having computer sex. I think Kubrick was not only commenting on the couple's need to transcend their current state of indifference by having sex, but also making a sly reference to a future that would perhaps one day trivialize the idea of physical sex between human beings. Furthermore, the girl chooses a teddy bear as her wish for a X-mas present. This significantly echoes the story of "Super Toys Last all Summer Long" by Brian Aldiss, the short story which was reportedly the basis for Kubrick's opus "AI." In that story, a child is looked after by a teddy bear which acts as foster parent to it, as the mother and father still await a chance to have a real child from a futuristic society that allows for children only through a lottery system. The story's climax ends with the realization that the child is in fact an android, or artificial, just like the teddy bear. It is a poignant story that seems to act as a portense of things to come, especially considering that Eyes Wide Shut deals with a couple's marital difficulties, and how the child takes a backseat to the events unfolding in both of their lives. The title of the movie, "Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut" seems to almost foretell the director's impending death. What Kubrick has left us is a film for the ages, one that will undoubtedly be regarded as one of the supreme achievements in the history of film.