enjoyable but irritating

Rating: Null/10 (2 February 2002)

Possible spoilers throughout.
I watched this movie with first great enjoyment, then simply enjoyment and as it went past the two-hour mark an increasing sense of impatience. The opening scenes, Tom Cruise's dream of being alone in New York, was extremely effective. Being alone when you don't want to be is everyone's nightmare, so finding yourself alone in a deserted city, and a futuristic version of your hometown at that, would be twice as scary.
That out of the way, we were introduced to character A (Cruise), the pleasure seeking, rich, handsome publishing executive who runs a multi-million dollar company while getting as much enjoyment out of life as he can. Are we supposed to like him less because he inherited the company, rather than having to work for it? Is there any nobility in being handed riches on a plate? We also meet character B, hero's best friend, and character C, hero's girlfriend. Or rather, she thinks she is his girlfriend but he thinks she is just his friend with whom he can sleep from time to time. At Cruise's birthday party (was that Stephen Spielberg as himself giving Cruise a hug and wishing him happy birthday?) we meet character D, a female friend of character B. A decides he wants D, takes it slowly for the sake of enjoying the chase but as we all know he will, he gets her in the end. This is not to character C's liking, so she deliberately crashed her car off a bridge while character A is in the passenger seat, killing herself and injuring A so that he survives with disfiguring injuries and has to wear a mask.
All very straightforward. The twists come as a series of incidents unfold during which we wonder about Cruise's grip on reality. Yes, we see into his dreams sometimes, but then we are left wondering when the dreams stop and reality begins. And all is eventually revealed. But by that time I was impatient with the movie and getting to the stage of wanting it to end and not caring as much as I did half an hour earlier what happened to the characters.
An interesting movie, with several twists. Tom Cruise gives and excellent performance, though don't you ever get the feeling that he has it written into his contract that the camera must spend a predetermined number of minutes worshiping his looks? Full marks to him, though, for playing half the movie in a mask or showing dreadful scars. I found Penelope Cruz (character D) singularly unprepossessing and couldn't see what Cruise saw in her (in fact or fiction). In character A's place I would have chosen C (Cameron Diaz) any day of the week. She is far more attractive and gave a far better performance.
This is a good enough movie but you may prefer to forego seeing it at a theatre and wait until it is available on DVD or video.