10/11/2011: Film: Eyes Wide Shut
“Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut is a movie out of time—or to put it another way, it’s timeless. It was released in the middle of 1999’s summer-movie season, preceded by Wild Wild West and American Pie, and followed the next week by an abysmal remake of The Haunting. In retrospect, it seems absurd that Kubrick’s enigmatic final film could be a part of blockbuster season, even though it starred Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, who at the time were Hollywood’s biggest power couple. But it’s a good example of what happens when films of genuine ambition and artistry are caught up in the swells of studio mass marketing and hype. (See also: Brokeback Mountain, an intimate drama that was instantly snapped up as a political talking point and viral-video parody fodder.) Fortunately, the guardians of film history (cultists, you might call them) are more than patient enough to wait out the culture’s short attention span, but I can’t think of a film that needs rescuing more than Eyes Wide Shut, which was greeted in many circles with disdain, disrespect, and willful misinterpretation.” - Scott Tobias
(Read the full AV CLUB article HERE)
I love this movie, I consider it to be one of Kubrick’s finest. Interestingly, I ran into an article that sees all kinds of occult symbolism in Eyes Wide Shut, specifically of the Illuminati. It seems kind of a stretch to me but google that if your interested.
Anyways, Eye’s Wide Shut is well worth the watch. The performances are subdued for sure but they are by no means bad performances, especially Pollack. Cruise has a couple of great scenes but the best of his is later in the movie and I wont say much other than his performance right before and right after he gets some really bad news.
The music is great too.
