dream in the wintertime

Rating: Null/10 (27 September 2003)

On my review about "Abre Los Ojos" (1997), I regarded "Vanilla Sky" as a poor and pointless remake. Well, I watched "Vanilla Sky" a few days ago and I wasn't wrong at all.
"Vanilla Sky is a remake that suffers of the comparison with the movie by Alejandro Amenabar. First of all, Cameron Crowe seems to like music very much (at a time, he used to be a journalist for "Rolling Stone). But why did he overload his film with so much music? "Vanilla Sky" is a movie spoiled by an overwhelming music. Due to this, the movie looks like a huge clip. It's not that the music is bad but the chosen songs suit badly to a movie with a rather dramatic story. It also often plays a decorative role. It means that it appears in several sequences where it wasn't necessary at all. And the chosen songs are sometimes incompatible with the feeling of a few sequences. For example, when Tom Cruise is in the building of the "Life Extension" firm and he's yelling: "I want to wake up!", you hear in the background "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys. Is it really the song you can think about when you're in an anguished situation?
On another hand, "Vanilla Sky" is supposed to be a thriller and however, you don't feel that you deal with a thriller. Unlike Amenabar, Crowe doesn't manage in introducing a lasting suspense and anxiety feeling during the movie. Neither, does he succeed in increasing the spectator's curiosity. The omnipresence of the music has got something to do with it. Moreover, Tom Cruise's "broken face" after the car crash isn't as repulsive as Noriega's one in "Abre Los Ojos".
This is also a movie that seriously lacks of rhythm, especially near the end. Besides, the end of the movie turns out to be disappointing because the conclusion of the plot isn't clearly explained.
As it was supposed, there's a problem as far as the performance is concerned. "Abre Los Ojos" was a brilliant movie because Amenabar directed very well his actors and they weren't famous. So it made the story more credible. Here, Tom Cruise is too famous and you aren't used in seeing Cameron Diaz in a bad role. As for Kurt Russell, he's very colorless in the role of the analyst if you compare him to Pedro Miguela Martinez. It's the same thing for Noah Taylor who can't hold a candle to GÃ©rard Barray.
A flat remake. At a pinch, can you save beautiful pictures of "a vanilla sky" and if the movie disappointed you a lot, there's always the soundtrack.