"Eyes Wide Shut" Review

"Eyes Wide Shut"

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Starring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack, Madison Eginton, Todd Field

 

RATING

10/10

Shortly before the legendary Stanley Kubrick passed away, he left what was arguably his greatest cinematic work yet. From the visionary director of "The Shining", "Full Metal Jacket", and "A Clockwork Orange" comes a tale so bone-chillingly haunting and psychologically impacting, the title itself strikes the resonance of a thousand paranoid, erotic souls intertwined in this great dance between life, sensuality, and death. And it happened on one cold night...

 

Dr. Bill Harford is a doctor with a gorgeous wife, Alice. They're invited to a party one night held by the prestigious Victor Ziegler. However, with their relationship hanging on the edge, the two are torn apart and confused. If not for their children, the marriage seems to be in peril. Until after a night of intoxication, Dr. Harford has an argument with his wife about her commitment to the marriage, and storms off into the dark streets of New York in the middle of the night, where a journey of wild sexual discoveries and unspeakable evil await him...

 

I'm in the minority here, but "Eyes Wide Shut" is my favorite Kubrick film and I believe his magnum opus. Before anyone attacks me for being pretentious, let me just say that I have seen a bulk of his films, including the three mentioned before, and I loved them all. But this film connected with me in strange ways I can't even begin to describe. Tom Cruise as Dr. Bill Harford is extraordinary, and even though many people would consider his roles in "Magnolia" or "Jerry McGuire" to be his best work, this got my pick for favorite Cruise film. His performance is subtle, but curious enough to lead the viewer down a very dark path, and thanks to his charisma, it makes getting on his side all the more easier. Nicole Kidman is perfect in her role as a conflicted and troubled wife who, you could say, is a total bitch. But she does it so well, it's seemingly natural and at the same time, oddly alluring. That's a very fine line for an actor to be able to portray, and its a solid performance nonetheless. Stanley Kubrick's direction is just impeccable and absolutely riddled with ambiguity and subliminal messaging, that even in your tenth viewing, you'll still be able to pick up little nuances. It may not be his most visually appeasing directing, but it certainly perfected the intensity and horror of each frame to deliver the best visceral impact imaginable. It was Kubrick's most daring, provocative, and scariest film to date... yes, scarier than "The Shining".

 

Even though on the surface, it appears to be a heavy-handed, erotic drama, it runs much deeper than that. There are so many layers to this film, deciphering it would amount to about fifty pages, and that's just the theory and speculation part. What really haunts you about the film isn't its extraordinary divulgence into the erotic lifestyle of the night, but the events and societies that unfold before the protagonists eyes. Dr. Harford tracks a secret party deep within the forests, in a large Elizabethean mansion, where a shocking discovery awaits him.

 

"Eyes Wide Shut" does something that most films wouldn't dare attempt: blending the elemental forces of reality's own dark secret societies and bring them to light in a highly eroticized way, but still maintaining its malevolent conspiracy style. It never for once breaks out of the fact that its merely a film, yet it forces you to consider an outrospective point of view on reality and the world we live in right now. I'd like to believe that only six days after the films theatrical release, Kubrick died of inexplicable and mysterious circumstances despite reportedly having good health and no illnesses. Did the legendary director finally push the wrong buttons? We may never know, but that is the brilliance that lies behind "Eyes Wide Shut". It's Kubrick's most personal film and certainly his most volatile in terms of belief, or the suspension thereof.

 

From a technical point of view, it's immaculately crafted. The cinematography is unbelievably powerful, and the production design is... uh, excuse the pun... orgasmic. Every shot is framed with such unique duality that you're constantly challenging everything you just saw, especially when the film begins to take unexpectedly dark and unthinkable turns in its second half. Be prepared to have your expectations stunted in many ominous ways. It certainly absorbed me, and threw me into a world where even innocence has to run its course, where the good in people are pushed to the boundaries of evil, and where the underworld of societies flourish in the pitch black night.

 

"Eyes Wide Shut" is Kubrick's psychological masterpiece; an enriching experience that will resonate with anyone who has firm beliefs or ideologies about there society, and reaches into your mind to plant some very odd and challenging imagery. It's a highly erotic downward spiral into the world that hides behind a mask.