Thick Smog and Fog Ahead.

Rating: Null/10 (29 December 2003)

Long, winding and ultimately pretentious and empty dud from director Cameron Crowe has New York publishing giant Tom Cruise recanting some odd events that took place just prior and after his 33rd birthday. Cruise, disfigured and imprisoned, tells a confusing story of lust and possibly love to prison psychiatrist Kurt Russell. It seems that lover Cameron Diaz snapped after finding out that Cruise was seeing new interest Penelope Cruz. A wild car ride for Cruise and Diaz would follow, but then everything after that is a gigantic fog of oddball situations and stranger outcomes (ala Stanley Kubrick's much better "Eyes Wide Shut"). In the flashbacks we see Cruise's best friend (Jason Lee) and a strange ghostly character that keeps on popping up all over the place (scene-stealer Noah Taylor). Soon Cruise's reality and dreams mix into a whacked jumble where nothing is what it seems and eventually even the Cruz and Diaz characters seem to show similarities. 2001 was definitely the year for strange experiences at the movie house with "Mulholland Dr." and "Memento". "Vanilla Sky" would like to be in the same category as those masterpieces, but ends up falling flat. The screenplay is all over the place and the resolution is predictable, unsatisfying and even a bit dumb. Cruise and Cruz have no chemistry at all in this film. They may be right for one another in real life, but they stink it up together on the silver screen (Cruise and former wife Nicole Kidman were so good together in movies). Diaz is strong, but is not around near enough to have the impact needed. The movie wants you to think, but by the end you will feel like you could have gotten more out of reading the label on the vanilla ice cream container. The theme song by Paul McCartney did receive an Oscar nomination. 2.5 out of 5 stars.