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Reviews
Eyes Wide Shut There is currently 1 review for this movie. Do you wish to add a review for this movie?
A Fitting End Reviewed by Adam Matthews
Eyes Wide Shut has been hailed as Stanley Kubrick's last great masterpiece. A masterpiece this film is not, but it is a fitting last production from one of the most talented, if slightly flawed, directors of recent memory. From the opening scenes of this movie you will be hooked. The audience is picked up by the story and taken along on what becomes a seedy, quite sad journey into the world of sexual exploration. The action is slow moving, but never dull and the movie is wonderfully shot, with Kubrick using his trademark "walk with" shot to great effect. In the acting stakes, Nicole Kidman takes somewhat of a backseat to real-life husband Tom Cruise, and at times she tends to overplay her role. One of the best scenes in the film is the one where Kidman's character, aided by a generous amount of marijuana, admits her "improper thoughts" to her husband (played by Cruise). The end of the scene sees Kidman break down into a fit of laughter, and Kidman's "laughing" performance is overdone. A small problem, no doubt, but it sticks out as an unusually bad piece of acting by such a talented actress. Cruise is fantastic as the tormented husband who, overwhelmed by visions of his wife's sexual fantasy, begins to question his own monogamy and seeks, somewhat unwittingly, to explore his own sexual needs. Where his journey ultimately takes him is somewhere he does not want to be and from there his life spins slowly out of control. The subject matter is confronting and, at times, difficult to take but sanitizing the material would no doubt have made this a lesser film. At nearly three hours in length, it is a testament to Kubrick's filmmaking ability that this film never becomes boring despite being so slowly paced. By the end of the film, you may feel that there was no real point to the story. There is no big ending and this only adds to the aura of this film. Eyes Wide Shut is confronting, but is shot in such a way that the audience is totally engrossed in what is happening. Kubrick has left us with a piece of work which is a fitting bookend to what was a brilliant, if slightly unusual, career. Rating: ****
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