Three key signs that you are watching a Tom Cruise movie. One – Tom running down the street looking confused (The Firm, Mission: Impossible). Two – token “Cruise-Out” moment (a sudden madness – Jerry Maguire – or token “cool” move – the sock slide in Risky Business). Third is most important, just like the key to a good Bruce Willis movie is the length of Brucie’s hair (bald = good, hairy = bad). If Tom’s grin fades faster than Haagen Daas drips down a naked thigh, then you’ve struck Cruise gold, boys and girls, prepare for Vanilla Sky…

This is not your typical Cruise feature, and definitely a huge change of pace from the relaxed and easy style of most Cameron Crowe movies (who directs, and also wrote the screenplay). It’s adapted, as you probably know by now, from Alejandro Amenabar’s 1997 film “Abre Los Oyos” (translated – Open Your Eyes). Alejandro’s Hollywood claim to fame comes from 2001’s distinctly average “The Others”, featuring Tom’s estranged partner Nicole Kidman (he also produced the aforementioned flick). Sounds like a version of the “6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game!

Interestingly, this coincidence is mirrored by the themes of the movie. Define life. Go on, define it! What makes your life, what affects it, what turns it into an experience rather than mere existence? Any avid film goer, book reader or music aficionado will tell you that small moments and key decisions shape your memory. Mind you, so will Gary Oldman on that bloody One2One advert. Just think how deeply a good movie affects you, or a strong novel might change your outlook on something, or how thinking about a piece of music works those synapses and fires out memories faster than that wacky octopus-looking headset thingy in Strange Days.

Whatever you may have thought of Jerry Maguire (went on a bit too long) or Almost Famous (incredibly over-rated), credit must be given to Crowe, who segues in themes and ideals from all his previous work alongside a more cynical and “edgy” (Gah! Hate that word, but brains don’t function without some kind of stimulant, and I’m all out of Jack Daniels) mind set. Just don’t wind that mind too tight, because it’s going to slacken up once Crowe starts f**king with it. However, there is a tendency to state the obvious. At some points in the plot I had pretty much second guessed the twists (my biggest clue being one of the TV shows Cruise keeps watching…see if you cotton on too…).

The best way I can describe this is: Cameron Crowe goes contemporary. His past movies seemed very staid to me, somewhat over nostalgic and definitely could have been made at any time from 1985 onwards. This is very much a “now” film, ripe for discussion and deconstruction, with its brains on full view as well as its fleshy parts. Not only a dissection of the nature of reality and its definitions, but a very clever glance at popular culture and how it affects our reality, our dreams, and possibly shapes our future. There is more subtle unease than a Billy Ray Cyrus performance, though from some of the more negative attentions of some critics, I was expecting a little more. These bad write ups are either from people who have no love of cinema, or just didn’t understand the tone of the piece, and are crushing their sour grapes underfoot into way too much whine.

Thankfully, this isn’t a one Cruise film, you also get Penelope Cruz, her of the mind-numbingly average Captain Corelli’s Mandarin, I’m sorry, MANDOLIN. She also starred in the same role in the original Spanish version of this movie, which gives yet another ounce of credibility to the whole pop-culture self referential brouhaha. She’s on finer form here, let’s just hope she makes some better role choices in years to come. She may look a bit strange (very thin neck, odd nose), but her acting talents are on full view here. And yes, fellas, she also displays her, um, natural talents.

David Aames – Tom Cruise
Sofia – Penelope Cruz
Julie Gianni – Cameron Diaz
Brian – Jason Lee
Dr McCabe – Kurt Russell