Intriguing, But A Secret Kept Too Well

Rating: 8/10 (18 April 2005)

EYES WIDE SHUT contains considerable nudity, several fairly explicit scenes, and one sexual situation after another. But any one who approaches EYES WIDE SHUT with the idea that it will be sexually arousing is in for an extremely rude awakening. EYES WIDE SHUT is not a sexy film, and (Hollywood marketing men aside) no one in their right mind would describe it as such.
The story is intriguing. Upscale New York doctor Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) and his wife Alice (Nicole Kidman) fall into a drug-laced conversation--and goaded by Bill's rather archaic ideas about female sexuality, Alice reveals that she has had a powerful sexual fantasy about a man she once saw in a hotel. Powerful though the fantasy was, the facts of the matter are much more prosaic: she never spoke to him, never had sex with him, and never saw him again. But the authority with which she describes the fantasy, and the realization that women in general and his wife in particular are capable of contemplating such behavior, sends Bill into an emotional spin.
Unable to shake the image of his wife having sex with another man, he prowls the city--and wanders more by accident than design into one sexual situation after another. Accosted by a patient, taunted by drunk men on the street who think he is gay, and even picked up by a prostitute, Bill eventually stumbles into the film's centerpiece: a secret society that gathers for cold-blooded and ritualistic fornication. And once he trespasses upon the society, he suddenly finds that death and destruction follow his every move.
There are clearly several metaphors at work in the film. EYES WIDE SHUT essentially presents sex as something that boils under the surface with a ferocity of which we are generally unaware--and then by stages ties sexuality to emotional risk, disease, perversion, cruelty, and ultimately death. It is also flatly Strindbergian in its vision of women, presenting them and their sexuality as irrational elements that must be subdued and reduced to the mechanical lest they lead to absolute destruction. And it is no accident that the story is set at Christmas with its story of a male God born of a virgin woman.
But these are only the most obvious of the film's layers. What confuses--and often enrages--viewers is the fact that Kubrick leaves a tremendous amount of wiggle room when it comes to both the story and what it means. There is no clear-cut summation re anything: everything is presented in the most ambivalent manner possible and we are left to draw our own conclusions. And this is as true of the plot as it is of whatever interpretation you attach to it; it winds back upon itself, ultimately frustrating any clear-cut response. One might say that with EYES WIDE SHUT Kubrick tantalizes us with a secret that he keeps entirely too well. I like the film, but people tend to have extremely divided reactions to it, and for that reason I recommend that you rent the film and decide for yourself before making a purchase.
In theatrical release, EYES WIDE SHUT was presented in a widescreen ratio; on both VHS and DVD release, however, it is presented in the ratio of a standard television screen. Liner notes indicate that Kubrick intended the film to be seen in that ratio--but even if that is true it is a pity that there is not a widescreen option, for the visual statement of the widescreen theatrical release was somewhat more powerful. If you are trying to decide between DVD and VHS and both price and DVD bonus materials are factors in your choice, you should know that there is no significant difference between the two.
Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer