A horrible mess.

Rating: 1/10 (28 January 2006)

This movie was a mess, from beginning to end. It seemed very "thrown together" and almost as if it was entirely ad libbed.
Tom Cruise plays David Aames; an egotistical, self-centered, rich pretty boy who thought he could do whatever he wanted and screw the consequences. In other words, he was playing himself. He finds out that treating women like yesterday's trash has consequences, when his "bed buddy" Julie(Cameron Diaz) starts to develop feelings for him and notices his attraction to another woman (Penelope Cruz).
There is a bad car accident. Julie dies. David gets messed up physically, IE "pretty boy" isn't so pretty anymore, and he cannot handle it. THe vain playboy takes a dozen or so pills because he cannot stand his own face. He especially cannot handle that his dream girl (also his best friend's dream girl) wants very little to do with him.
He became involved in this "Lucid dream" project (unsure whether it was before or after the accident, as the story jumps around so much time wise) and that is where the whole plot gets convoluted and twisted so that neither you nor the main character himself knows what is real and what isn't.
In David's dream-life, he's still handsome. And he has a wonderful romance with Sophia...or wait, Julie? Oh wait, nobody. He's dead? he's alive? He's seeing a shrink ( Kurt Russell). His shrink doesn't exist...? It all becomes a blur of scenes of David's fantasies and pseudo-realities, and neither the audience nor David knows what is real and what is just a dream. It's not even *really* explained by the end of the movie.
It would have been better if it were all wrapped up neatly in the end with an explanation of what is real and what isn't. But the end still kept us guessing.
It also would have been better if Cruise had not been cast in the leading role. His over-acting and yelling every line reaches an all-time high. And his attempts at a drunken stagger were pantomimic and laughable. Penelope Cruz was bland at best. And, in my opinion Cameron Diaz' performance really stands out as the multi-faceted Julie. Sadly, her scenes were short, sweet, and few.
I give this stinker a 2 out of ten.