Glossy but emotionally subpar remake

Rating: 6/10 (4 February 2015)

I revisited Vanilla Sky recently. I wondered if my early impressions of the film might be ripe for revision. In one way they were. I came away from my second viewing with a clearer idea of the film's strengths and weaknesses. Vanilla Sky begins with a disadvantage. It's an almost frame by frame remake of the hugely successful and widely admired Spanish film Abre Los Ojos and so actively invites comparison. That's been done and I can't add anything meaningful to the debate. But since Vanilla Sky was made, there has been a rash of similarly themed movies, books and (in Britain at least) radio plays. Judged by these standards, the movie fares quite well. It's beautifully made. Everything and everyone looks wonderful. The girls in particular are perfectly cast and bring serious emotional power to their scenes. If you don't think Cameron Diaz can act, take a look at her scene with Cruise in the car. It'll send shivers up and down your spine. But that emotional punch is ultimately what the film lacks. It's the missing ingredient and the fault lies with Cruise. As the rich and impossibly charming playboy inheritee of his daddy's publishing empire, he's note perfect. Of course. Tom Cruise has made a career out of knowing his strengths and is rightly the most commercially successful actor of the last few decades. There's no denying his commitment to his craft and what serious actor could resist the lure of Charles Laughton's crown as the king of prosthetic pathos but it's the undoing of this film. All the training, all the practice, all the sheer willpower in the world cannot prepare you for a role like this. And that's the point. The role is pivotal and Cruise is not the actor to invest it with a full emotional life. Frankly, it's hard to think who would have been a better choice. Without Cruise, the film might never have been made and anyway, he's not the movie's only problem. Kurt Russel's responsible for some cringeworthy mugging, better suited to a bad daytime soap. Would I rather the film hadn't been made? No, it brought the story to a wider audience and has its own strengths. I doubt that it will be remade any time soon but if it were, I wonder what Tom Hardy would make of that central role.