"10" without the laughs

Rating: 3/10 (17 January 2001)

Despite the pre-release hype about how this film was to be on the cutting edge of sexual explicitness, Eyes Wide Shut isn't about having sex. It is about NOT having sex. Like Dudley Moore before him, Tom Cruise sets out to have an affair and, despite encountering a variety of eager women (and one man), can't seem to even get his pants unzipped. The result is a comedy of errors with no laughs; a porn film with no sex and a thriller with no suspense. Kubrick seems to have been hopelessly stuck in the early sixties as far has his view of eroticism is concerned. From Alan Cummings oh-so limp wristed homosexual to the orgy where everyone prances around in maskes and costumes, Kubrick seems to have thought he would shock the audience with something new and daring. But time passed Stanley by -- even soft-core porn offers more explicit material then presented here and daytime soaps have more insightful examinations of infidelity and maritial angst. This film is stylishly, but utterly gutless in addressing the issues it pretends to be exploring. And don't get me started on the truly awful musical score....