heavy lifting

Rating: Null/10 (19 November 2002)

It is not a spoiler to alert the viewer that we hear Sophia's voice speaking the opening lines of the movie--even though Julie is David's supposed bed partner as he awakens. Weirdly, we hear Julie's voice repeating the same line as the last words in the movie--even though David has just launched himself back toward Sophia. If you want to understand this very complicated movie, it might also help to notice which woman (or women?) appears floating in the sky during parts of the Times Square sequence-also in the opening minutes.
It is very difficult to know what to make of all this complexity--doubly so because one cannot go back and review critical passages without shelling out another $8.50. My suspicion is that the complexity is ultimately incoherent, but maybe I still have to do some heavy lifting. Consider a couple of additional complexities. Is it possible that David and Brian are actually killed in the near-brush with the Mack truck in their first scene together? After surviving, do they get out of the car? The next cut to David entering his offices is strangely jarring. He has changed clothes, is wearing a different watch, and has on a funny hat. Also, David's pre-accident face-so important to the story line-is frozen into a smugly affable look throughout much of the film. I was thinking it was poor acting on Cruise's part, but maybe it was intended. David first refuses, then wears a mask--at one point wearing it on the back of his head so that he appears to have two faces! Don't many of the other faces appear mask-like-particularly Ellen's when we finally meet her. Is it Ellen we see floating over Times Square?
The trouble is, to interpret this film with the symbolism and layered meaning it seems to deserve, one has to credit Crowe and Cruise with a great deal more artistic ambition then is expected in a big budget film. Talk about heavy lifting.