This movie floored me

Rating: 7/10 (16 December 2001)

We open with an aerial view of NYC with intermittent pauses of darkness and silence. David Aames (Cruise) wakes up and drives off to see a deserted NYC at 9AM. It's eerily quiet. But it's also just a dream and he wakes up again, and this time all is normal. But at that point, I realized that this movie is going to be a mindfu--. Boy, does it deliver.
The movie can almost be cut into three pieces: the somewhat hokey beginning, the mindfu--ing middle portion, and the resolution that will make many go back to see it again. The hokey beginning shows Cruise living the life of a rich punk getting everything he wants, including Sofia Serrano (Cruz). They have an incredible non-sexual night together; one of those nights where two people connect. He falls for Serrano, which frustrates Gianni to no end, causing her to drive him off a bridge, disfiguring his face.
The second part is filled with disjointed scenes where Cruise is in a jail cell talking with Dr. McCabe (Russell) about a murder while reliving the past. Things become less and less clear and soon the audience is completely confused as to what the hell is going on.
But don't worry as when the secret is revealed, it explains much (though perhaps not all), and even does a nice job stringing in past scenes. I don't want to give anything away; you'll know what I mean when you see it.
The movie isn't perfect, IMO. I wasn't crazy about Cruz, as some of the lines delivered seemed flat, and one scene where she runs away is almost comedic. Also, Crowe sometimes drowns the movie in music to the point of distraction. The first part does sort of lag, but only because it is supposed to establish the story so I don't fault that.
Bottom line, this movie may require some patience in the beginning, but it totally captures you about 1/2-way into the movie and doesn't let you go. When it finally "opened my eyes", I was sincerely shocked. I talked about the movie for close to an hour with friends. When a movie makes you think about it after it's over, that's the mark of a good movie. On par with Memento, but still not to the level of Mulholland Drive, Vanilla Sky will probably end up as one of my favorite movies of the year, and one of those movies that come up in conversations of movies that "you gotta see". 8/10.
-Mark