Tom Cruise at his best

Rating: 9/10 (22 August 2009)

OK, so I know I am late to this Vanilla Sky party, but I finally watched this DVD after seeing it sit on my shelf for a couple of years, and I was just blown away. I expected to hate it but I loved it, and my husband and I sat spellbound from start to finish. The film is sometimes a dream, then it is reality, then just a dream, it totally messes with your head. Makes you think. Makes you feel.
Definitely, without a doubt, Cruise's best dramatic performance. Fantastic. He starts the film as a playboy, all full of himself, charming. Then he transforms into a bitter, tortured man. Unsettling to see, whether behind the mask or with his disfigurement showing. I felt his anguish.
And Penelope Cruz, long before her brazen performance in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, making us fall for her. Beautiful, heartfelt. And Cameron Diaz is convincing as the messed-up stalker girlfriend you don't quite expect to see. "Earl" (Jason Lee) is also good as Cruise's only friend. It took me awhile to realize it was "Earl," because he looks so different in this film.
And the Manhattan exterior shots, how cool were they? The early scene when Cruise is all alone in Times Square. And the skyline! I did get sad when the Twin Towers appeared in the film, during the rooftop scene at the end, and I remembered that there was some hot discussion about the film when it premiered regarding the shot of the WTC and also Cruise diving from a skyscraper, but it reinforces that the setting was real. (Except...... it would not make sense to show the Towers if the last scene takes place far into the future -- the Towers would be gone, I guess. I don't know. Being from NY I guess I am extra sensitive about films with the Towers in them.) Anyway, this is the 3rd "mind-bending" film with Cruise that I have seen (Magnolia and Eyes Wide Shut being the other 2) and this is my favorite by a wide margin.