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EYES WIDE SHUT Send This Review to a Friend
Stanley Kubrick told me when I interviewed him some years ago, "The most powerful level on which a film works on the audience is on a subconscious, psychological level and it is on this level that we are all equally perceptive and equally blind. Watching a film is really like taking part in a controlled dream."
This concept, particularly apparent in his "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "A Clockwork Orange," is operative again in "Eyes Wide Shut." Kubrick seizes our minds at the outset and leads us dreamlike through his maze of sexual exploration in an atmosphere that seems otherworldly even while ostensibly rooted in reality. It is a gripping, completely engrossing erotic journey that contemplates the awesome, explosive power of sexuality, whether by means of carnal experience or nagging hidden desires and unfulfilled fantasies.
It is tragic that Kubrick died before he could enjoy the acclaim "Eyes Wide Shut" surely deserves--dissenters notwithstanding--and also tragic that we will see no more work from this master of cinema. I have long felt that Kubrick is the greatest of modern American directors based on his extraordinarily creative and consistently dynamic achievements throughout his career. "Eyes Wide Shut" is yet another masterly triumph, a fitting finale. It leaves audiences with much to contemplate after the unnerving experience Kubrick puts them through and is likely to stimulate more interest in looking anew at the body of his work.
I want to tell you as little as possible of the plot of the film, inspired by Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella "Traumnovelle" and co-scripted by Kubrick and sophisticated screenwriter Frederic Raphael with intelligence and adult perspective. Too much has already been spilled. I will say that at the outset we see a striking rear view of Nicole Kidman's striking figure, seen again later. (I'm getting to feel quite familiar with Kidman's derriere, also seen on stage in "The Blue Room.) But that's only the come-on. Kidman is gloriously attractive as a total being in the eye of Kubrick's camera in her role as Alice Harford, who is married to a young physician, Dr. William Harford, portrayed by Tom Cruise. They have a young daughter. It is Christmas time. They are in love. But a sexual itch has seized them both.
Kubrick gets quickly to work exploring threats to marital fidelity by placing the couple at an elaborate party given by their well-heeled acquaintance Victor, played by Sydney Pollack, whose renown is as a director, although he sometimes takes acting roles. (Remember him as the agent in "Tootsie"?) The good doctor and his wife each find their temptations. That is the start of the trip that takes them through a series of troubling, sometimes suspenseful events that involve assorted characters and reflect raging libidos, pathetic lives, and unhappiness along with the search for experiences that will satisfy basic urges. In some respects this is Kubrick's "La Dolce Vita," but whereas that ends in despair on the one hand and a glimmer of hope on the other, "Eyes Wide Shut" is in effect a morality tale. Its ultimate view is that the best, most meaningful sex rests on true love and affection.
Kubrick could not have found a better couple than Cruise and Kidman as his leads. Not only are they superb in the parts, but there is the added charisma of their being married in real life and established contemporary movie icons. They are also exceedingly good-looking. The writer-director has cast well for the supporting parts, including several exquisite actresses for key characters who epitomize the lure of sex and its risks. I do have a quarrel with Alan Cumming's portrayal of a hotel desk clerk as a very cliched gay. Although making him gay and attracted to the doctor adds yet another dimension, Kubrick should have known better than to allow the role to become so stereotypic.
As one has come to expect, the director is meticulous about his settings, intricate use of color, camera angles, pacing and his inspired choice of just the right music to reinforce mood and feelings. Apart from everything else, "Eyes Wide Shut" is technically polished and demonstrates yet again Kubrick's masterly control of the varied components that go into filmmaking, all the more so because these elements are used so viscerally and applied to a subject of such depth.
The film's most riveting extended sequence is an orgy involving a mysterious sexual cult. Shame on the rating board for browbeating Warner Brothers into inserting some computer-generated figures to partially mask sexual acts in order to assure an R rating instead of the threatened NC-17, which would have restricted the film commercially. This is pure hypocrisy, given the violent stuff that gets Rs. (The foreign version will be unencumbered by such nonsense.) I have opposed the ratings since they were adopted and will not use them with my reviews. This latest bullying is plain silly, as anyone seeing the film will know those at the orgy are not playing scrabble. It is to Kubrick's credit that in a film about sexual relations he doesn't depend on explicitness. The eroticism comes from seducing our imaginations into involvement with the emotions of the characters. A Warner Brothers release.
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