Perfect Conclusion to the Trilogy of Great Journeys:

Rating: 10/10 (8 February 2006)

I believe that Kubrick's swansong is a great masterpiece, it is one of my favorite films and has been since I saw it first time. I felt under the film's spell from the very beginning: the camera was so much in love with Kidman's gorgeous figure, her golden hair; the music by Shostakovich - so European even though the film takes place in NYC. The film was so clever and so mesmerizing. The more I watched the more I realized that there was something vaguely familiar and strangely comical in the film. I kept thinking and it occurred to me that Kubrick paid homage and parodied Joyce's "Ulysses" in the same way Joyce himself treated Homer's celebrated poem. For me, there are so many similarities between "Bloomsday" and "Billnight", between both men's journeys and adventures on the streets of Dublin and NYC that I am curious if anyone else noticed that. There are visits to the Kingdom of Dead, sirens, Cyclops, the sorceress that turns men in pigs (the figure of speech that is :)). Both Bloom and Bill try to run from but can't forget and eventually come back to the only woman they are attracted to for eternity - Penelope - Molly Bloom- Alice Harford. Both deeply suffer from her infidelity (Bloom from the real one and Bill from imaginative but it hurts the same). Both are very insecure men who doubt their own masculinity and try to prove to them that they are the real men but they can't. Both are married to the strong women who would give them hope in the end - both "Ulysses" and "EWS" ends on the affirmative note. The last word in "Ulysses" "Yes" belongs to Molly just before she fell asleep and the last lines in EWS are:
"Alice Harford: I do love you and you know there is something very important we need to do as soon as possible. Dr. Bill Harford: What's that? Alice Harford: F_uck."
If that's not the happiest and most satisfying ending for a movie ever then I don't know which one is. For the great ending I can forgive a movie many sins. But tell you the truth, "Eyes Wide Shut" is perfect, it has nothing to apologize for. It is the movie that would be admired many years from now. Perfect conclusion to the trilogy of great journeys of a man for search of himself - "Odyssey", "Ulysses", and "Eyes Wide Shut".