Eyes Wide Shut

Stanley Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut follows Tom Cruise’s William Harford as he embarks on an odyssey of sexual discovery after he learns that his wife (Nicole Kidman’s Alice) almost cheated on him. It’s clear immediately that Eyes Wide Shut is dripping with Kubrick’s distinctive, singular sense of style, as the movie boasts an extremely lush visual sensibility that’s immediately hypnotic and also, at the outset, compensates for the decidedly deliberate storytelling. There’s consequently little doubt that the film, while always watchable, suffers from an opening half hour that’s simply not all that engrossing, with Eyes Wide Shut‘s transformation from decent to electrifying triggered by a fantastic sequence detailing William and Alice’s stoned confessions to one another. From there, Eyes Wide Shut progresses into a strangely episodic midsection revolving around William’s nighttime exploits in New York City – with Kubrick, working from a script cowritten with Frederic Raphael, offering up a number of seemingly pointless, palpably comedic interludes (eg William’s encounters with an oddball costume-shop owner). The decidedly erratic vibe persists until Cruise’s character bluffs his way into a bizarre upper-class orgy, as this sequence, which is easily the movie’s high point, possesses an absolutely enthralling feel that’s heightened by Kubrick’s flawless execution. (The auteur’s use of previously-composed music, for example, is nothing short of breathtaking.) It’s equally clear, however, that the film peaks with this section, which, given that the movie progresses for an additional hour or so, ensures that Eyes Wide Shut‘s second half suffers from a padded-out feel that is, to put it mildly, regrettable. The movie’s overall impact is ultimately heightened by its extremely memorable (and extremely Kubrickian) atmosphere, which does, in the end, compensate for the various flaws contained within Eyes Wide Shut‘s 159 minute running time.

*** out of ****