I like it more than I should

Rating: 7/10 (26 December 2011)

Vanilla Sky is, obviously, a very unnecessary film. Hollywood's ever growing tendency to hijack every somewhat successful foreign film and remake it in English for the local market is one of the worst diseases of the American film industry; this remake of Alejandro Amenábar's excellent Abre los ojos - made only three years after the original's release - is, by its conception, no better than any of them.
And yet - and yet, I like Vanilla Sky. I can't say that I like it as much as Abre los ojos, but that's mainly because it lacks the element of originality. Some elements aren't as strong as the original, and there's definitely a Hollywoodian feeling that distracts, but the remake has many strengths as well - other than the obviously bigger budget, the biggest advantage it has is director Cameron Crowe. Crowe adapted the film nearly word-for-word and shot-for-shot, but he lent it his own style, his own penchant for pacing, and of course an excellent soundtrack which includes artists as varied as Radiohead, The Monkees, Red House Painters and Sigur Rós. Crowe's smoother, more elegant approach is just as appropriate for the story as Amenábar's grittiness, if not more, and it's actually quite refreshing to see these two different approaches to an almost identical film.
Tom Cruise also does a surprisingly good job. While Jason Lee and Kurt Russell don't quite work out in their roles, I actually liked Cruise better than Eduardo Noriega in the lead. Cruise lends the role the same airheaded, self-important naiveté he had in Jerry Maguire, to darker results, and supplies one of his better performances. I also liked - nay-sayers be damned - the increased emphasis on the sci-fi elements, which work as a truly surprising turn when they finally appear.
Vanilla Sky isn't as complex or intelligent as Abre los ojos. Instead, it's more stylish and more dynamic, and as a film by its own right, it works just as well. Despite the many similarities these are two different films, and I like them both.