A worthy addition to the Kubrick legacy.

Rating: 8/10 (9 August 1999)

Eyes Wide Shut - ***1/2
Director Stanley Kubrick's final film is a probing, thoughtful, occasionally baffling exploration of relationships.
Dr. William Harford (Tom Cruise) and his wife Alice (Nicole Kidman) are smoking pot one night, after a party during which both spouses flirted with others, when Alice reveals that she once had thoughts of cheating on her husband. She did not act on the impulse, she explains, but she considered giving up her marriage and her daughter to pursue a mysterious Naval officer. Dr. Bill is startled by this, but finds himself summoned to a house call before he is able to respond to the revelation. That night Bill finds himself caught up in a series of increasingly bizarre circumstances. 1) A grieving woman makes a pass at Bill right beside her father's deathbed (literally.) 2) Bill is accosted by a gang of young hooligans, 3) He is propositioned by a prostitute named Domino (Vanessa Shaw.) He goes back to her place, but a phone call from the wife dampens the mood. 4) Bill meets up with an old friend named Nick Nightingale (Todd Field.) Nick is a struggling piano player who explains that he has a gig later that night at, well. an orgy. It seems that Nick plays blindfolded. 5) Bill memorizes the password needed for admittance to the orgy and quickly sets out to acquire the prerequisite attire (tuxedo, cloak, and mask.) Apparently he is after a little revenge nookie. 6) Bill visits the Rainbow costume store in the middle of the night and encounters Milich (Rade Sherbedgia,) the eccentric owner, and his daughter (Leelee Sobieski.) 7) Finally, Bill arrives at the big "party." I will not spoil the rest of the film. Let me say simply that Bill's covert presence at the orgy is uncovered, and he finds himself afraid for his own life as well as the lives of others. The final third of the film chronicles Bill's search for answers: Who are these people? What happened to that mysterious woman? Where is Nick Nightingale?
Eyes Wide Shut has Stanley Kubrick's fingerprints all over it. All of his signature traits are here: The pregnant pauses, the dramatic silences, the somber music, the stillness of the camera, and - most of all - the cold detachment. It is highly Kubrickian (to coin a phrase) in its refusal to editorialize. What is the point? What is this film about? Kubrick never tells us. He simply presents us with the facts and lets us draw our own conclusions. As a result, every viewer comes away with a different message, because every viewer goes in with a different frame of reference.
Much has been made of the technical production of this film. Yes, it is true that Harvey Keitel and Jennifer Jason Leigh were cut from the movie and recast. Yes, it is true that Stanley Kubrick filmed numerous takes - sometimes more than 100. Yes, the shoot lasted for several years. Yes, it was filmed entirely in London, even though it is set in New York City. And yes, some of the cloaked figures in the orgy scene were digitally inserted to cover strategic areas and thereby earn an R rating - as opposed to an NC-17. But none of this matters. What matters is what ended up on the screen. And what ended up on the screen is an artful, insightful, and mysterious film.