A Bit Nearsighted

Rating: Null/10 (17 July 1999)

"Eyes Wide Shut"
Unfortunately, I am of the school where Stanley Kubrick is just another director. A man who makes movies like most other filmmakers around. Independent, free do do anything he likes, the 100 take man... What Stanley Kubrick has always represented to me is power and madness. A perfectionist who is beloved for a trait that any kingdom would crumble under. I've spent many years trying to like his work. I feel like an outsider. For his last film "Eyes Wide Shut", I have the opportunity to see one of his pictures in the theater. That's something that has never happened before.
Mr. Kubrick has chosen Tom Cruise to lead us this time. A ferociously gifted actor, he seems the natural choice to play Doctor Bill Harford, a man who's wife(a shockingly capable Nicole Kidman) reveals a secret desire for another man one night whiled stoned on marijuana. In a fit of jealous rage, the Doctor hits the streets of New York in search of his long hidden desires and wishes. What he finds startles him. A world of lust that he never really accepted in his private world. It turns him on and threatens his life at the same time. It's also a world he must confront to understand the bond of his marriage. I can sincerely say that this is Kubrick's most low key film ever.
Being Cruise's story, we see everything from his angle of discovery and delight. I was amused by his scenes with a hooker (Vinessa Shaw) and a flirtatious hotel employee (Alan Cumming). I enjoyed most of the first half of the film. "Sweet", I thought to myself, "I finally like a Stanley Kubrick movie!"
The one thing Kubrick does like no other director is to make his films glide effortlessly. "Eyes Wide Shut" is probably the most well put together movie of the year. The production design is absolutely flawless. Each location that Cruise finds himself in is another chance to glimpse a well thought out world. The use of colors and film grain make a nice addition to the texture of the piece. Kubrick also prefers a stedicam glide through a scene than to cuts. Amen! The actors are better served with one-take shots instead of the usual chop-chop mentality. Technically, "Eyes Wide Shut" is a marvel. The best looking Kubrick film out of the bunch.
It is around the infamous "orgy" scene that the seams start popping out of nowhere. The Doctor finds himself sneaking into a ritualistic orgy complete with high priest and absurdly staged "sex". It's the scene that climaxes the Doctor's story. Trouble is, when you look down at your watch, the film still has an hour to go. The orgy scene kills the movie on two levels. First being that - forgive me - it blows the film's wad. We get a full glimpse at the depravity and gluttony that the movie hinted at before(for the record, the digitally added figures that were added to cover nudity to avoid the NC-17 do hurt the scene greatly). Second thing is, since we have no idea what this orgy is about, it's hard to feel the danger that the Doctor is supposedly in. The movie works overtime to suggest that this moment has changed the Doctor forever. I never felt that. It came off as more of a goof than a life-threatening situation. And some orgy, about 10 people having sex while 400 look on. I've seen more bodies in heat in a July line outside the Old Country Buffet.
Since the film has nowhere to go after this, we get an hour of forced intrigue and bad acting by Sydney Pollack. Now I want to stress that I did understand, get, comprehend "Eyes Wide Shut". It has many layers (the critics keep telling me this), and I'm not a true film lover if I cannot appreciate the film on it's deep emotional levels. But I can't. Kubrick's creation is visually dazzling but is far from pure cinematic brilliance. Other directors could take this material and make the same dead-weight film as well. The only thing that separates this from other movies is all the behind-the-scenes action. If Wes Anderson had his actors do 100 takes of a scene, who cares. But when Kubrick does this, IT'S GENIUS! His films are original. They just aren't all that good.
"Eyes Wide Shut" is a cold, distant movie. A film that many will love, but many more will leave the theater wondering what to think. While with powerful moments, the final product is a very languid piece that will serve as the perfect example to what Stanley Kubrick could do with a million feet of celluloid.------------ 5