Life Extension

Rating: 5/10 (5 April 2017)

I love the unique style and background Cameron Crowe brings to his films. It's like an unexpected mixture of juvenile wonder and adult innocence that appeals to me about his films. Vanilla Sky is by far his darkest feature, but also the one with the least amount of heart and pizazz. In fact, most of it is just a dull mess.
Vanilla Sky is an American remake of the 1997 Spanish film, Open Your Eyes. While I haven't seen that film yet, I can imagine it's probably a little more coherent. The remake poses some thought provoking questions and themes, including questions centered around life, death, dreams, guilt, regret, and a few other heavy hitters. But the way in which those themes are covered is less than impressive. It's a poor pun, but perhaps it isn't too surprising that this film feels very vanilla.
The performances were great all around, and became the main driving force for my dwindling interest as the film went along. You can see Tom Cruise's passion for this role dripping through the character of David. This may be the best Cameron Diaz has ever been, as the creepy but seductive Julie Gianni. And of course, Penelope Cruz is great as Sofia Serrano. As much as I love their performances, it's difficult to become invested in any of the relationships when the script isn't where it needs to be. It's a dull screenplay that feeds off your attention span, or lack thereof. By that I mean that the film is only as interesting as you make it out to be. It takes plenty of twists and turns to keep your interest enough, but what's the point of a twist if you don't really care where the characters end up?
Vanilla Sky is essentially a melodramatic soap opera disguised as a romantic mystery. I wasn't necessarily bored during the film, but it didn't grab my interest the way a film like this should have. Great acting, trippy visuals, and a classic Cameron Crowe soundtrack wasn't enough to save this dreamy picture.
+Acting
+Poses interesting questions
-But takes too many twists and turns for those questions to mean anything
-Dull script
5.6/10