Eyes Wide Shut DVD > Reviews > Open Your Eyes!

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Unmemorable
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	A Masterful Film
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Review History
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This is the second time I have reviewed, ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. On the first occasion, which was also my virgin review, I never did the film justice and rightly only achieved a ‘helpful’ rating. I’ve tried to do some editing to the original review but it just isn’t happening so I’ve decided to do the whole thing over again in the hope that this time the rating achieved will match the greatness of the movie.

Film Background
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As with many other movies, a book lies behind the inspiration for ‘Eyes Wide Shut’.

The book, titled, ‘Traumnovelle’, [Dream Story] was published in 1926 by Austrian writer, Arthur Schnitzler [1862-1931]. Schnitzler was a controversial writer for his day, with one of his works, ‘Der Reign’ provoking a six-day obscenity trial resulting in acquittal. Traumnovelle, from what I can find wasn’t as controversial but still fitted in with that genre dealing with the lines between sexual fantasy and reality.

Perhaps it was this controversial nature of Schnitzler, his works, or indeed both that attracted our equally controversial film producer *Stanley Kubrick to purchase the film rights to the book in 1968.

Whatever the case, the film version of the book was released in North America in July 1999, coming to the UK screens in September of the same year. Sadly Kubrick died in March 1999 denying him the pleasure of witnessing the usual cries of the critics that he seemed to invite in all his films with a kind of, ‘I know better’ smile on his face. Coincidentally, or for the more mystical amongst us, as the gods/fate/destiny would dictate it was his thirteenth film.

*Kubrick is of course a massive name in films and rightly so. He has produced a whole host of classic movies, most notably, Space Odyssey 2001, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket.

Eyes Wide Shut Title
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I couldn’t do this review without remarking on the title. What, if anything is it supposed to portray? How can one’s eyes be wide shut? Well, for my thinking it is seeking to refer to eyes that can biologically see but are blind to actual reality. This of course would fit into the storyline as it portrays the two main stars as living life as if they can see reality but gradually come to realise the shallowness of that perception. Others think it refers to the recurring place of mask in the film because of course a mask has eyes wide open but cannot in fact see anything. That might be the case but of course masks don’t have eyes at all but holes so the analogy doesn’t seem to hold. With Kubrick dead I guess we’ll never know but it is a great title for the movie.

The DVD Cover
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The copy I have of this DVD is headed along the top as being from the, Stanley Kubrick Collection. I don’t think there’s a different cover but can’t be sure.

It is a simple front cover with the cantered head and shoulders picture of the two main stars, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise. They are about to kiss, with Cruise’s head away from camera and eyes closed, with Kidman’s eyes open, looking surreptitiously out the corner of her to the camera. It looks like they’re naked. Below the picture you have the producer’s name and below that, in large bold face type the name of the film. At the bottom left hand corner we’re given the rating – 18.

The back cover is split in two halves. The top has three stills from the move going down the left hand side with a description of the film filling up the remainder. The bottom lists the special features of the DVD and the usual film details.

The inside cover has a Scene Index running down the left hand column with a tempting scene shot from the film of a full back view of Nicole semi-naked.

The Film
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Imagine the scenario. Both you and your partner live lifecomfortably in the upper-echelons of society. You have friends, money and prestige. Your marriage is going along fine and you have a growing young child. Then your partner reveals to you that a year before, they were so taken by a brief encounter and accompanying sexual fantasy with a complete stranger that’d they have given up everything to have been with them. How would you react?

That’s the situation Dr. William Harford finds himself in with his beautiful artist wife Alice [Nicole Kidman] who divulges this information whilst under the influence of pot with the intent of shaking her husband out of what she views as a complacent attitude towards her and their marriage. Little does she realise when the statement was made that it was but the catalyst for a serious of events for both of them involving sexual fantasy, temptation, cultic based orgies, drugs, prostitution and mysterious deaths. The question is that if they both survive these events without succumbing to infidelity, will their marriage still be intact and if so, in what state?

It is a journey of sexually charged intrigue and mystery that exposes the fragility and shallowness of some relationships and reminds us all about the power of words and the impact they can have on people’s lives.

In conclusion, the last line of this movie by Kidman is typical Kubrick genius. Watch out for it!

Leading Cast
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Dr. William Hartord – Tom Cruise
Alice Harford – Nicole Kidman
Helena Harford – Madison Eginton
Victor Ziegler – Sydney Pollack
Nick Nightingale – Todd Field
Mandy Curran – Julienne Davis

Performances
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Since the focus of the film is around Bill and Alice it is really only the performances of Cruise and Kidman [at that time married] that stand out. Both play their parts excellently but Kidman excels herself in this movie like in no other I’ve thus seen, especially the bedroom scene with Cruise where she makes her ‘confession’. Sydney Pollack and Todd Field play their parts adequately but nothing beyond. Of the non-lead cast Rade Serbedjia, who plays a shop-owner amused me, his film daughter played by LeeLee Sobieski was very mischevious, and I enjoyed the brief performance of Vinessa Shaw as Domino the prostitute.

Music
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I simply loved the musical score in this film. It is haunting, but light enough to almost ‘dance’ it’s way through the film. You are aware of the music but not in an intrusive manner. The original music is from Jocelyn Pook but there is a whole host of others drawn upon, including pieces from Mozart and Liszt. [Of them all I’d suggest you listen out for, ‘They Did a Bad Bad Thing’].

Personal Opinion
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This is one of my all-time favourite movies. I first seen it on TV and only joined it halfway through but knew at that point I had to get the movie and learn as much as I could about it. I soon purchased on video and wasn’t disappointed and finally on the DVD that I am reviewing. There is just something real about the movie in how it brings to light those fantasies that I think are there in every relationship but are kept hidden away, maybe for the best. I guess the best thing I can say that will show how I view the movie is to note that it lasts for nearly three hours yet, not once during the many times I have viewed it has it felt like that amount of time has passed or have I found myself distracted from the movie. How many movies can do that with an audience? Finally, I’m so taken with this film that I’ve purchased the book it is based on and believe it or not for the princely sum of £0.01 at Amazon!

Film Details
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A Warner Brothers Presentation
Produced: Stanley Kubrick.
Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick and Frederic Raphael
Executive Producer: Jan Harlan
Editor: Nigel Galt.
Director: Stanley Kubrick.

Rating: 18
Running Time: Approximately 152mins.

Special Features
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Interviews with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman and Steven Spielberg
2 TV Spots – Combo and Jealousy
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Comments: The interview with Cruise and Kidman are useful background to the film, although Cruise comes across as kind of an annoying person, indeed it was an Oscar winning performance! Kidman’s interview is more down-to-earth and genuine. Spielberg’s is more a tribute to Kubrick.

Availability
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Copies of the DVD are available from Ebay, Amazon and other retailers. Going price is from £2.50 -£6.

Film Facts/Trivia
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- Stanley Kubrick’s wife, Christiane and his oldest daughter Katharina both have cameo roles in the film. Christiane plays the woman sitting behind Cruise in a café scene and Katharina plays the mother of the child in the examination room scene.

- Harvey Keitel and Jennifer Jason Leigh were originally cast to play the roles of Dr Zeigler and Marion but dropped out of the film to be replaced with Sydney Pollack and Marie Richardson. An untrue rumour spread that Keitel was forced out by Cruise when, in a scene where he stands behind Kidman masturbating - who is on her knees facing away from him – he actually came over her hair. More likely it was due to the prolonged duration of the filming and the numerous retakes of scenes.

- There was a twelve-year gap between, ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ and Kubrick’s previous film, ‘Full Metal Jacket’, with seven years lapsing between that and ‘The Shining’.

- The family chosen for Cruise/Kidman and daughter, Harford is allegedly taken from Harrison Ford, the kind of all American person Kubrick wanted the roles to depict.

- The film was entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the Longest Constant Movie Shoot.

- The film had an estimated budget of $65,000,000.

- Cruise and Kidman [then married] successfully sued a tabloid for presenting a story that Kubrick had to draft in two sex therapists to coach the couple in their film love-making scenes.

- Lots of symbology is claimed for the movie and might well be true, e.g. When the prostitute propositions Bill in the street the background is a Lotto shop, the suggested symbology being that it was a gamble with his sexual health. Given how that encounter turns out I find such a suggestion credible.

- Lots of references to the nature of the movie and Kubrick’s previous movies are to be found in the film.

There’s tons more that are all fun to know but I’ll stop here for[ the sake of review brevity. [Sources for the above are various websites on the film].
 

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