one of my favorite movies of recent times...(longish)

Rating: 10/10 (22 August 2002)

I went to see this movie in the theaters expecting a watered down version of Abre los Ojos, little did I know that Cameron Crowe was going to take his version, and inject so much life and humanity into it! To say I was pleasantly surprised is the understatement of the year! I plainly fell in LOVE with this movie, even more when it was finally released on DVD, and I got to see Crowe's commentary and just hear him express all the things unsaid in the actual feature.
I am a big fan of audio commentaries, specially by directors who LOVE their craft. Cameron Crowe is one of those directors. The audio commentaries for Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky are amongst the best ive ever had the pleasure of listening in to.
Cameron Crowe has said in interviews that Alejandro's take on both movies was this : He thought the movie was like two brothers: one that was into opera and one that was into rock n roll. That was my dream that you could watch both movies and see some similarities and see that we took some different paths too.
People tend to get mad because the movie gives away the whole plot device in the end, but those who do, arent really "getting" what the movie is *really* about. The Sci-fi plot devices in the movie are really just a means to an end, the *real* meat and potatos of the movie's message is within the relationship of David and Sofia, and in my opinion, this was much better developed (as were most of the characters) in Vanilla Sky than in Abre..., where the characters felt a bit one dimensioned, at least compared to their counterparts in Vanilla Sky. (specially the best friend character, which Jason Lee played to perfection, that character was pretty much one dimensional in Abre...)

To put a wrap to it: If you saw this movie and hated it, see it again, try with an open mind. If you enjoyed it, see it again with the Director's comentary on, its WELL worth it!