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Eyes Wide Shut
on DVD (1999)
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| Starring: |
Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Madison Eginton, Jackie Sawris, Sydney Pollack |
| Director: |
Stanley Kubrick |
| Studio: |
WARNER HOME VIDEO |
| Run time: |
159 mins |
| Certificate: |
 |
| User collections: |
The South by Southbank Film List, Films that stand out from the crowd, I love these films but hey everyone has different taste, Marmite Movies, The Greatest Films of All Time, The Greatest Films by the Greatest Directors, My Collection at Home, IMHO best movies I have seen |
| Genres: |
Thriller |
| Languages: |
English |
| Released: |
10/09/2001
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| Also Available on: |
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Brief synopsis of Eyes Wide Shut
Stanley Kubrick's final film is a mature, highly intelligent, thrilling masterpiece of sexual obsession and marital (in)fidelity. Tom Cruise stars as Bill Harford, a doctor who becomes obsessed with a sexual fantasy that his wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman), confesses to him. Although the fantasy (involving a naval officer) occurred only in Alice's mind, Bill can't get it out of his own head; his obsession leads him through a series of potential sexual encounters, each one surrounded by the specter of death. His whole world threatens to unravel as he falls deeper and deeper into a web of mystery, lies, and deceit.
Kubrick's film breathes with vivid blues, reds, and blacks, the threat of illicit sex and death lurking around every corner. Cruise and Kidman, who are married in real life, are utterly convincing as a happy couple suddenly forced to reexamine their faith in each other. Sidney Pollack, Todd Field, Julienne Davis, Marie Richardson, and Vinessa Shaw sparkle in minor roles. Based on the novella TRAUMNOVELLE by Arthur Schnitzler, EYES WIDE SHUT is a brilliant examination of the psychological nature of sex and marriage, of faith and faithlessness, of obsession and desire. Kubrick said that his last film (he died shortly before the film opened) was 'my best film ever'; while that is debatable, there is no doubting that the film is a splendid finale to a glorious career.
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Related
Critics Reviews
Radio Times
Full of trademark themes and characteristic compositions, Stanley Kubrick's final film is also his most fascinatingly flawed. With its style often resembling 1970s European art house movies, it lacks the morbidity to pass as a Buñuelian satire, and is too stately and serious to succeed as a commercial enterprise. Tom Cruise — as the doctor recklessly seeking a means of avenging his wife's fantasised infidelity — is far too controlled for his character's fraught nocturnal adventures to be plausible. Nicole Kidman, as his wife, is less visible, but simmers with potential erotic danger. Despite expectations, this is a disappointingly conservative conclusion to a career spent pushing back cinematic boundaries. Perhaps, after so long without directing a movie, Kubrick cared too much.
Halliwell's Film Guide
An atmospheric account of sexual jealousy, temptation and fidelity, meticulously made and with an oddly dreamlike quality about it; but, while being faithful to its slim source, it is also overlong and much too portentous.
Variety
"...Riveting, thematically probing, richly atmospheric....A deeply inquisitive consideration of the extent of trust and mutual knowledge between a man and a woman..."
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