An Interesting Effort

Rating: 6/10 (14 December 2001)

This is not a great movie, but it held my attention for the most part.
Cameron Crowe is generally very much an actor's director, but he went into the stratosphere with the script and it's hard to tell if he succeeded or not. I suppose I'd like to see it again to make sure! In light of the views of reality in this movie, I'd be curious to see what he would do with Neil Gaiman's American Gods, should that novel ever be optioned for a film. And I'd definitely like to rent the Spanish film that served as the film's inspiration and supplied the ever-evocative Penelope Cruz as the female lead, playing the same part she had in the original (is that the first time this has ever happened?).
Tom Cruise really did not impress me in this movie, with the exception of one scene very near the end. I'm not sure what it is about Cruise - he's given some incredible performances in a few movies, notably Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire. He and Crowe work well together. He was a convincing narcissist during the first third of the film, but he really had enormous trouble playing a man whose life was ruined.
******SPOILERS/SPOILERS/SPOILERS**********
The very first voice you hear in the movie is Penelope Cruz saying "Open Your Eyes." But, "in reality," Tom Cruise is having a dream and hasn't met the character of Sofia "yet."
The next voice you hear is Cameron Diaz saying the same thing, only this time it's "reality."
That made me think that, perhaps, the whole movie was one long dream.
Reality is a little skewed in any case. In an early scene, Tom Cruise's car has an inspection sticker with a date of "2/30/01." Late in the movie, what is "reality" and what is "the dream" are explained. Various red herrings are revealed and discarded - or are they? The last thing you hear is yet another female actress saying "Open your eyes" at the very end of the movie. "In reality," the Cruise character has been in cryonic suspension for 150 years...or has he? Is he just still dreaming lucidly?