Different is not necessarily brilliant

Rating: 7/10 (30 January 2002)

"Vanilla Sky" is a hard movie to judge because it's not quite in the normal Hollywood mode, which is generally a good thing though it doesn't mean you end up with a good movie.
It's hard to talk too much about the plot of the movie without actually spoiling the movie. It's sufficient to say that Cruise's character David is disfigured in a car accident somehow and has been arrested for murder. The details prior to his arrest are revealed in that, somewhat tired old narrative tool of flash-back. What makes the film more interesting is that it switches between a couple of time-lines and the time-lines themselves can shift in keeping with David's memory of events. However in the final third of the movie the plot takes a gigantic shift and asks the viewer to swallow some rather large doses of disbelief. The final ending whiffed a bit too much of "AI" for me in terms of tone and sentiment and was somewhat unsatisfactory. The plot may shift a bit but, despite what other reviewers would have you believe, isn't all that complicated. Certainly at the end it's hammered home as to what happened to David that only an idiot *could* be confused... and it also speaks too much of a "big reset" button. You'll know what I mean once you've seen it all.
Cruise is good in this. Generally I'm indifferent to his acting, feeling he gets by on his pretty-boy looks but he finds justification for himself playing the tortured soul here. Penelope Cruz is adequate although doesn't exhibit a whole load of emotional range (presumably stymied by not acting in her native tongue) and Diaz has a tendence to put in a somewhat hammy-psycho-girl performance which I can not always take seriously. David's mate, played by Jason Lee, and David's lawyer, played by Kurt Russell, are both perfectly passable without being scene-stealing or giving the Academy anything to notice.
As to Crowe's adaptation of the original movie, I found it for the most part well enough done. Firstly I enjoyed the sound-track, partially because it featured about 5 of my favourite bands but also because the musically was generally particularly well chosen (as someone pointed out the REM track "Sweetness Follows" is excellently placed). The cuts between scenes are generally well handled without being confusing or unnecessary and the production values, in the character's houses, reflect the personas well. Crowe can be a bit heavy-handed at times and this is of particular note in his overly-long explanation of "what happened" at the end of the movie. Perhaps this is for the benefit of the slower audience members but it made the ending drag out too much (again like "AI") - certainly I knew there would be a "surprise" ending and correctly guessed the main device that would be used (since Crowe made it quite obvious earlier on in the movie that it would be used - again too heavy). It's well done and capable - scenes like the much-touted Times Square are nice and add to the movie but it's nothing comparable to the sharper touches of David Fincher's "Fight Club" to which the movie has (somewhat erroneously) been compared.
I'd recommend you see "Vanilla Sky" to form your own opinion. It's a breath of fresh air at least and is that bit "different" from your average formulaic 5 act movie. Whether you'll come across feeling somewhat mutely disappointed, as I did, is hard to tell. In the end I'll give it a 7/10 and look with interest to see if Crowe can do better next time seeing as how I enjoyed his last piece "Almost Famous" that bit more than this.