Overwrought, yet oddly compelling

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2001)

Cameron Crowe has sought to throw his audience a curve ball with Vanilla Sky, a 2 1/2 hour free-for-all illustrating the machinations of a man on the edge of insanity.
Is it good?
Well, for what it's worth, I really enjoyed the ride. The visuals are exemplary, the story is taut and keeps you involved. But I don't know as if I'd recommend it to a friend: It's not the typical crowd-pleasing movie.
Tom Cruise plays...well...the stereotypical Cruise-ian disaffected man of privilege...no casting coup there. He's good, but his character illicits little sympathy, which is crucial for this movie to work.
Penelope Cruz is eye candy; someday, maybe she'll master the English language and convince us how well she can act: She's not "there" yet.
Cameron Diaz gives an almost-Oscar-worthy performance...clearly the best of the bunch, totally convincing as a obsessive boink-on-the-side.
Jason Lee gives his best performance thus far...which isn't saying all that much...keep trying, Jason!
It sounds like I didn't like this thing, but I actually found it a compelling view...though to be quite honest, much of the plot points were way too similar to "Mulholland Drive"; Vanilla Sky seemed to throw in a male protagonist, a slightly-more-coherent storyline, and beautiful visuals to make it a tad different than Lynch's tale.
Check it out...you might like it. (And any movie with two Sigur Ros tunes in the soundtrack is okay by me!) 8/10