Kubrick's Final Coup
Yes, it's Stanley Kubrick's final movie, and it's about sex. But it's not the sex movie you may have played in your head after seeing that very first "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing" teaser with a naked Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
As promised, it is in fact a film about jealousy and sexual obsession (or at least jealousy and a sexual journey). Peel back the emulsion, and there's even more-a film that arguably depicts man's first temptation by Eve, along with life in this age of dangerous sex.
And Kubrick portrays it brilliantly.
Not everyone will get it. Not everyone will appreciate it. But this is filmmaking in its purest form-a major, high profile art film. Eyes Wide Shut is all framing and timing and focus and lighting and grainy stock. Kubrick's camera can take an understated performance-as Cruise's often is-and amplify it tenfold, peering right into the soul.
The dialogue is spare...and...unfolds..very..slowly,
punching...just...the...right...words...(this is no chatty Woody Allen movie). The camera work rarely gets much faster, with its lingering, tracking, absorbing. And just where that camera will go next, no one knows.
The odyssey begins at a black-tie party attended by Manhattan physician Bill Harford (Cruise) and his wife, a former art gallery manager, Alice (Kidman). As they mingle their separate ways, both suddenly find themselves the object of other guests' affections. Dr. Bill winds up with two models hanging off his arm while Alice dances with a lusty Hungarian. Yet, they both show temptation the other cheek, proclaiming their wedded bliss and channeling their desires at home toward each other.
But the residue of these near-liaisons remains. The following night (in a scene masterfully acted and shot), Alice dissolves into a pot-induced hissy fit. She provokes Bill with issues of lust, jealousy and fidelity. Then-reaching the point of no return-she taunts Bill with a sexual fantasy she's had involving a naval officer she happened upon during their Cape Cod vacation.
At this point, Alice becomes Eve, tossing her Adam an apple filled with worms from the can she just opened. She practically invites her husband to fall from grace.
Bill barely has a chance to absorb his devastation before a medical call summons him. Through the rest of the long night, Bill stumbles into one sexual temptation after another, all the while imagining the affair his wife never actually had. Women throw themselves at him, treating the good doctor as if he were Tom Cruise. And before the night is over, Bill finagles his way into a decadent, demonic masked orgy at a Long Island mansion.
Through that episodic night and its aftermath, Kubrick seems to reflect sex in these days of AIDS. While temptation seems to lurk around every corner, abstinence prevails, whether by choice or circumstance. And when it doesn't, sex often equals grave consequences.
By the end of the movie, the viewers and characters both find themselves eeling as if they've lived a dream; wondering if all really was as it seemed. And thus, the title, Eyes Wide Shut.
Does this film look like one that was more than two years in the making? No-meticulous as it is. Did Cruise and Kidman waste their time enslaving themselves to Kubrick for two years to shoot it? Absolutely not. Kubrick elicits some great performances from the couple, especially Kidman. And Cruise, her real-life husband, can be proud of some stunning moments Kubrick captured.
To re-word that Chris Isaak song title, Baby Did a Good, Good Thing.
[For more information related to this story, see CBS News Has 'Eyes' Covered]
[To see the official Web site for Eyes Wide Shut, click here.]
Written by Rob Medich