Best Movie of 2001

Rating: Null/10 (8 January 2002)

Well, some of the reviews I've read here are about as misguided as most of the reviews I've heard on the street from people who saw the movie. While some of you put forth very well thought out reasons why you didn't enjoy the movie (which I can respect), most of what I've heard from others and from people here amount to "duh, I don't get it". After seeing the movie, the first person I talked to said she hated it and asked me "So I don't get it. Did Cruz or Diaz die?". "I could only shake my head, ask if they even saw the movie, and said 'both'". I mean damn, it was 150 years later, of course the both died. Even the seemingly elementary concept of where the real world ended and the dream began seems to have been lost for most viewers, and how can someone be expected to appreciate a movie if they can't follow a concept that was, as others have said, spoonfed to them in the final scene. By the way, for those complaining about the fact that the final scene insults their intelligence, talk to your average moviegoer on the street and you'll find out why Crowe had to put a bib on his audience and shove the explanation down our throats. Most people just don't get it.
Now this isn't to say that you're in an idiot if you didn't understand the movie. We all have different tastes and appreciate different forms of entertainment, and some things just aren't interesting enough to some for them to follow. But it does explain why, as Kevin Spacey says so eloquently in Seven, if you want people to stand up and take notice, you can't tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer. Perhaps some things could have been left up to our imagination, but hey, people are already upset that they had to think during this movie, just imagine if they were asked to use some deductive reasoning to piece together all the different storylines too.
Anyway, I don't feel like turning this into a 10 page dissertation on why I loved this movie, and why everyone that hated it is wrong. Differing opinions is what is helping to generate the kind of buzz this movie deserves. But everything, from the directing to the acting to the odd choice of music that doesn't fit the scene to the spectacular images of New York, is exactly what i look for in a movie. And the fact that I had to think about what I just saw, sometimes in utter amazement, puts Vanilla Sky into the upper echelon of my personal favorites, right there with Fight Club and Pulp Fiction. Whether you end up loving or hating it, see it.