The Fresh Films Review: Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Directed by:
Stanley Kubrick

COUNTRY
UK/USA

GENRE
Erotic drama/Mystery

NORWEGIAN TITLE
Eyes Wide Shut

RUNNING TIME
159 minutes

Produced by:
Stanley Kubrick

Written by (based on Traumnovelle by Arthur Schnitzler):
Stanley Kubrick
Frederic Raphael

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Dr. William Harford	Tom Cruise	½
Alice Harford	Nicole Kidman
Victor Ziegler	Sydney Pollack	½
Marion Nathanson	Marie Richardson
Mr. Milich	Rade Šerbedžija
Nick Nightingale	Todd Field	-
Domino	Vinessa Shaw	-
Hotel desk clerk	Alan Cumming
Sandor Szavost	Sky du Mont	-
Sally	Fay Masterson	-
Milich's daughter	Leelee Sobieski	-
Carl Thomas	Thomas Gibson	-
Mandy Curran	Julienne Davis	-

Review

Stanley Kubrick's final film is a lavish, hypnotic picture with a production process as mythological as the story it tells and the subculture it presents. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman play a seemingly happily married couple who find themselves consumed by lust, jealousy, and insecurity after becoming entangled with a clandestine sex cult. While Eyes Wide Shut moves along elegantly and captivatingly on a surface level – impeccably devised and shot, with every frame an expressive piece of visual art – the film is far more abrasive and challenging beneath that sheen. And this duality, which was always a hallmark of Kubrick's, makes it a continually enthralling experience. Never before or since has a Tom Cruise character encompassed such complexity as his Dr. Harford here, and Kubrick's ability to strip away the actor's usual smug confidence makes Cruise's performance here unusually thought-proviking. Though some might feel Eyes Wide Shut has a faint air of suggestive affectation running through it, the film rises above its occasional triteness thanks to Kubrick's conceptual brilliance and its undeniable seduction.