Eyes Wide Shut

It’s been 12 years since the release of the last Stanley Kubrick film (Full Metal Jacket). With the death of the famed director in March, curiosity has been building about his last project, Eyes Wide Shut, which had been in production for 2 years.

Eyes Wide Shut is a near-masterpiece, a fitting farewell to a cinematic genius who only made 12 feature films in a 45 year career. Inspired by a 1926 novella, "Traumnovelle" (Dream Story) by Arthur Schnitzler, the movie looks at the distrust and paranoia that briefly consumes a seemingly perfect marital relationship.

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman play Dr. Bill and Alice Harford, a married couple who live in New York’s fashionable West Side. They attend a Christmas party hosted by Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack), one of Bill’s wealthy patients.

While the doctor is distracted by two attractive models, a tipsy Alice dances with a mysterious stranger (Sky Dumont). She resists his sexual advances. Meanwhile, Bill disappears upstairs to tend to Victor’s female acquaintance who has overdosed on drugs.

The next night in their home, under the influence of marijuana, Alice questions Bill about the incident. She discloses a previous near-encounter with a naval officer during a vacation trip. Incensed, Bill leaves to respond to a call that one of his patients has died.

Bill goes on a late night walk through the streets of New York that leads to one bizarre encounter after another. Based on the tip from a former medical school buddy, he winds up at a large country estate. He witnesses a sexual orgy and his life is threatened. Word is that 65 seconds of the scene ended up on the cutting room floor to keep the movie’s R rating. The only fault that I can find with the movie is its ending, which takes forever to get to.

Still, several things stand out that make Eyes Wide Shut a work of art. The performances are peerless, particularly Nicole Kidman’s.

Fans of Stanley Kubrick will recognize his trademark cinematography at work. Each scene is meticulously staged, with an interesting array of color and light. The action is deliberately paced. The symbolism will give movie fans and students of film plenty to talk about for years to come.