A Powerful and Moving Film

Rating: 8/10 (27 March 2006)

Tom Cruise delivers an excellent performance in Vanilla Sky, a remake of the Spanish film Abre Los Ojos, a tale of reality, imagery, deception and love.
Cruise plays successful businessman David Aames, a man who can have anything his heart desires, he is rich and powerful. An intimate affair with his female friend Julie Gianni (Cameron Diaz) proves to be ultimately his undoing and lead to a turn of surreal, confusing events.
He meets the beautiful yet naive Sofia (Penelope Cruz) whom he instantly falls in love with, however Julia becomes jealous of their closeness and seeks revenge against the man she loves, driving her car off a bridge with David and herself in the car, killing her and leaving David severely disfigured.
After the crash David becomes a shadow of his former self, becoming paranoid about his appearance, having the most disturbing dreams and falling to understand why he sees the dead Julia everywhere he goes.
David eventually succumbs to his paranoia and delusions, ending up in custody charged with a murder he believes he didn't commit, along the way we meet psychologist Curtis McCabe (Kurt Russel) and David's lifelong friend Brian Shelby (Jason Lee), all the while believing that Julia has somehow framed him for her "murder" with the help of his enemies.
The film ends with onr of the most powerful and compelling scenes I have ever witnessed, David's delusions are explained with a twist to end all other film twists, however David's journey is far from over, he must now make another choice, his true moment of choice.
A truly excellent film. 8/10.