a brilliant journey of self-awakening

Rating: 10/10 (12 September 2005)

The movie starts out as your average romantic-comedy, you meet David Aames (Cruise), a good looking, successful playboy-type executive at a big company, who takes all for granted, his best friend Brian (Lee), who is somewhat his opposite; Julie (Diaz) who is David's "f*ck-buddy" - according to Brian - and, of course David's soon to be love interest, Sofia (Cruz). Everything is nice, love is in the air, the birds are singing, and the sky is a Monet-vanilla blue, but real soon you get the feeling that something bad is going to happen. And it will... After spending a night with Sofia, David meets Julie, who can't see their relationship the way he sees it. From this moment on, the movie turns into a psychedelic ride into David's tortured psyche. Suddenly the vanilla flavored daydream turns into a nightmare. What is reality? Who died? What happened? The casting is perfect, Cruise at his best, Cruz proves that she has more than just her cute accent. A brilliant journey of self-awakening, masterfully directed by Crowe.