Abomination

Rating: 1/10 (1 January 2003)

I've seen, and love, the original film Abre los Ojos by Alejandro Amenabar. Having seen it several times, and as an actor, I can comment on how well constructed every moment of the film is. The story is constructed to keep you constantly wondering what exactly is going on from beginning to end and the acting is so perfect that the performances mimic real life. Unfortunately Vanilla Sky is but a pale reflection of the film it so shamelessly attempts to copy.
By taking what is meant to be a convoluted story and overexplaining it, Cameron Crowe dulls the impact significantly and turns it into an almost unintentional comedy. The concept is far fetched and Amenabar was well aware of that when he wrote Abre los Ojos. Apparently Crowe felt that the only way to keep an audience interested is by attempting to tie up every loose end to the point where it becomes redundant and completely uninteresting. We understand what is happening almost an hour before it ends so why must it be consistenly drilled home?
Unfortunately the real disappointment is in the performances. Tom Cruise is no better than a dime store version of the original's Eduardo Noriega and Penelope Cruz lacks any of the charisma she had in the original. Also, the intentions of all of the actors are so far from how the story is designed that it ruins any impact the film could have had. The usually excellent Jason Lee was obviously given no direction and flounders aimlessly in his character. Cameron Diaz is so abominable that she can't, even for a moment, convince me that she is even attempting to stay in character. Of course the fact that Crowe wrote the characters so lifelessly that they would not have been convincing regardless of who the actors were.
In the end I'd highly recommend staying as far from this abomination as possible and watching the far superior Abre los Ojos. I know this is 2 hours of my life I'll never get back so hopefully you won't have to suffer the same fate.