My candidate for Worst Film of the Year

Rating: 1/10 (15 December 2001)

VANILLA SKY (bomb) / Drama / Dir: Cameron Crowe /
Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz
A business executive is nearly killed when his jilted lover commits suicide by driving off a bridge. High points are the love scenes between Tom Cruise & Penelope Cruz as well as Tom Cruise & Cameron Diaz. Trouble is, for 1/3 of the film Tom Cruise wears a mask, and for another 1/3 his face is horribly disfigured.
The directing and acting are quite adequate, but not inspired. While VANILLA SKY is long and plodding, its real problem is not in the execution, but with the script. The premise is so far-fetched it's worthless. VANILLA SKY is made up of flash forwards, flashbacks and dream sequences. It resembles LSD trip films of the '60s. The mix is so confusing it's not possible to tell the real from the dreams. But maybe that's the idea. I had no idea where this film was heading until it arrived. When it did, I found the experience totally unsatisfying.
VANILLA SKY easily ranks as the worst film I've seen this year.
Dave