I never really buy the concept that the events depict a dream. The slow pacing smacks of self-indulgence. Late night niceties. The driving force behind Bill Harford's sexual odyssey, seduced into a voyeuristic voyage of the night with casual ease, is never firmly established. Who in his right mind, even an all-powerful doctor, knocks on the door of a costume shop owned by a patient of his at sometime past midnight and when he opens his wallet to present his AMA identification card, it's like a police badge or something.
Dubious logic is in force at the mansion orgy as well.
There are times when Harford acts like he's play acting a dirty Hardy Boy mystery. Kidman's long, bedroom monologue about her sailor fantasy is well done, but, it is slow, reflecting against he overall pacing of the film. Production design is often powerfully sexual and accompanied by a striking score with sharp chords falling like an ax to define the action, these elements along with the lush cinematography, provide the biggest kick from Eyes Wide Shut , often overwhelming the thinly constructed story elements. . Cruise and Kidman are both fine as Bill and Alice Harford, though Cruise seems rather callow for a doctor in his position, though maybe there's something more to that. Kidman has never been as sexy and Cruise moves into what may be his first mature role with grace and confidence.