I wanted to like this movie, but ...

Rating: 6/10 (12 July 2004)

I just saw this on dvd. This was a movie that I wanted to embrace, but just could not. To back up for a moment, I never saw the Spanish language film on which it was based, Abre Los Ojos. So, whether that film was far superior, about the same, or somehow not as good, is irrelevant - for this purpose.
The performances were fair to good - Cruise is a reliably good actor - this represents a solid performance. Cameron Diaz was pretty good, Jason Lee did fine, but Penelope Cruz's acting (now, at times she looked gorgeous, and watching her dance is a pleasure) left something to be desired. My guess (judging from this and Captain Correlli's Mandolin)is that she is much better, and much more natural in Spanish language films. But, even w/ a great performance by her, this film would not be very good.
I believe the set-up is ok, and some of the ideas expressed are pretty good, but the story is somehow a little bit self-important or trying too hard to say something or to provide twists. I don't believe this is Cameron Crowe's best work at all. I liked Almost Famous a lot, and actually think Jerry Maguire was one of the superb works of the 90's. Look at Crowe's writing, and the performances from everyone in the JM cast-- almost, a perfect mix of dramatic tension and comedy). And, I know that this is a different style film, but I felt that the music (he does have good taste in music) was a substitute for memorable dialogue or pacing -- it just felt like a bad montage of music videos. The movie repeats lines of dialogue as if they are the most clever things ever written, but they're just ok. And then, the movie has, in my opinion, the nerve to steal a scene and the wonderful score from To Kill A Mockingbird (off a flimsy pretext), when Vanilla Sky couldn't "carry Mockingbird's jock", so to speak...Anyway, this film just seemed too self-conscious and too derivative of other films to really go anywhere. Not a terrible flick, but for me about a 6.5 out of 10.