Eerie and haunting, Eyes Wide Shut floats as a beautiful waking dream, the last work of a genius and one of the finest American films in years. It is a deep investigation of human sexuality that refuses to present its audience with any solid ideas or presumptions, instead choosing to instigate thought, meditation, and conversation on no less a subject than our inner and outer selves: how we behave, how we think, and how we view each other. And what we hide, even from ourselves.

Many critics and audiences have decried the film's lack of a traditional narrative, but they failed to realize that the format, the very texture of the film, renders it a work that requires no narrative. As in Luis Bunuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Eyes Wide Shut is less two hours of linear celluloid than it is a series of connected vignettes joined-in this case--only by a central character. However, as would befit a Kubrick film, EWS doesn't skip gleefully around. It instead slides deliciously from scene to scene, giving the viewer an overwhelming and sometimes overwhelmingly eerie and beautiful experience. Kubrick eschews the visual symbols he favored in earlier films, such as The Shining, opting instead for elaborate, mysterious sets and depending largely upon his actors, including Nicole Kidman, who gives a fierce, if all too brief, performance, and Tom Cruise, who conveys deep and textured emotion in every scene, sometimes only through the haunted look in his eyes. A unique film, a masterpiece of atmosphere, direction, and intricately, purposefully, wonderfully unconventional storytelling.

A rather lengthy note: Shame to Warner Bros. for not releasing the unrated version of this film in the United States. I realize it is their policy to not release to video any film with an NC-17 rating, but especially considering the controversy related to this film's initial cutting by Warner Bros. under the MPAA's advisement, I'd think they would try, at least, to appease the adult audiences and adult critics who felt cheated by not being able to view the final work of a genius the way he would have had them view it, had not the Motion Picture Association of America intervened. The sex in this film is not erotic. In fact, Eyes Wide Shut is only about eroticism and sexual hunger as subjects. As in Atom Egoyan's lesser but still intriguing Exotica, sex and eroticism are just a base, a MacGuffin, if you will, to allow us to explore the characters' desires and emotions.

I consider myself to be an intelligent adult. I am capable of viewing an interesting movie, thinking about it, and discoursing with a reasonable degree of knowledge and intelligence. It is my understanding that the MPAA created ratings as an objective guide to allow the public (and, of course, parents) to determine what films are appropriate for them and those for whom they are responsible to see. Unfortunately, the media-and that is not a blanket statement, as many newspapers have refused and do refuse to promote films above an R rating-have decided that an NC-17 rating is unacceptable, ruining its euphemistic intent. It is time for the supposedly also intelligent adult members of the MPAA ratings board to split the NC-17 into, as critic Roger Ebert has said, into two ratings, one appropriate for artistic films, the other for gratuitous, vapid, senseless, violence or truly pornographic sex.

Is that a judgment call, qualitative instead of quantitative, as MPAA president Jack Valenti says? Sure. But Valenti contradicts himself. He says that should the MPAA begin judging adult films qualitatively, it would risk litigation from movie studios. Yet at the same time, he has dismissed many filmmakers' complaints--that they need to cut their films in order to get an R-rating--by saying that submitting a film for an MPAA rating is optional. Yes, at its base, it is, even if the media make it mandatory by some media's refusal to print ads for NC-17 films. The MPAA must construct a system that will give American audiences what the MPAA claims they are already getting: the ability to be informed as to what awaits them in a darkened movie theater and also the knowledge that what they are seeing has not been tainted by censorship. That is not asking too much. (Mar 21, 2000)

*** SPOILER WARNING *** Please, for your own good, do not read any further into this one when you haven't yet seen the film. [In order to read the following, hold down your (left) mouse button and highlight it.--Jack]

Horror is inherent in everything I've seen from Kubrick so far; and again, horror does not mean slasher. Horror comes from Latin horrere: to frighten. And this is one of the many facets of this movie. But it develops slowly, almost unnoticable. The movie starts in a relatively unscary way, almost is comedic in some elements. The first cut into chaos and darkness is when Bill is called to a medical emergency Victor has with his hooker girlfriend; the scene at first seems both unreal and too real at the same time, it disturbs both the flow of the movie and what we first've seen from Victor. Beyond the obvious lies a completely different reality, masked by several ways of deception. During the following conversation between Bill and Annie that evening cracks appear in the reality of Bill's marriage, and when he leaves for another emergency, he perceives the world differently, but still isn't willing to give up his convictions. It is only when he talks to his pianist boyfriend that he really gets active, now he is willing to get his adventure. On his way, when at the costume rental shop, he again sees things surface which he wouldn't have believed before, especially when returning the costume.

The movie up to then proceeded to a certain point, increased its weirdness factor step by step and still had Bill unwaveringly standing his ground. He always was able to undo the things he started, he was able to retreat, he just wanted to look, from further action he refrained because of his marriage and his convictions. This changes once he enters the masked "ball". And it is also at this point where the movie takes a dramatic turn of events, it changes into what I would describe a horror movie; although this term mightn't be applied here without general consent. Anyway; setting, music, the masks, the movements of the people, the action - all of these elements suddenly changed the viewing experience. Shocking? You could say so. The masked congregation itself is a classic element of horror - it is a secret sub-society which appears to be very powerful; any outsider is in a great danger of being deprived of his life. It is a ocnspiracy theory which is similar to the things seen on The X-Files, but here it is not about little green men but about sex. And suddenly, I came to realize another connection, that with David Lynch's movies, especially with the Twin Peaks'series, with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and Blue Velvet. An up-to then innocent bystander is drawn into the realm of darkness by his curiosity (as with Agent Cooper and Laura Palmer; Donna Hayworth in the Pink Room; and Jeffrey in Dorothy Vallen's Apartment). Especially the scene in the Twin Peaks movie in the Pink Room apparently seemed similar to this.

Bill is drawn by his curiosity into a situation he cannot solve by himself. He suddenly is surrounded by the masked crowd, paralleling Alice's dream, and he is saved by this women who had warned him earlier already. But his leaving the "party" leaves him with a feeling of guilt which will haunt him further throughout the rest of the movie, throughout the rest of his life. When he is followed and his movements being monitored, it is no coincidence that he breaks when confronted by Alice with the mask: He is broken deep inside of him already. But not even Victor could convince him otherwise. The betrayal of the seemingly best friend is also kind of an element of horror, furthermore, when this friend appears to be taking part in the deception and in the crime. The death of the woman, of Victor's hooker girlfriend, as well as the unclear future of the pianist, stand in clear contrast to what Victor is telling. This gives the thing another turn of the screw. After telling it Alice, their lives are changed. They can only go on by ignoring it, by pushing it aside and by trying to survive anyway. Their marriage suddenly seems to be a much more complicated arrangement than before.

This is one of those movies where you cannot really believe what you're seeing. The scenery is great, the places usually infinite and vast, especially the apartments. There is no sense of claustrophobia in these rooms, not in the first parts of the movie. The scenes in the masked party are outstanding, especially when you see Bill and his savior speak - you cannot see the faces behind the masks, and when they speak, it looks really spooky or dream-like. Masks are always somewhat spooky, especially when the impression on the face depicted on the mask collides with the actions of the person. A smiling face acting in an aggressive way is quite demonic. - Kubrick's choice of actors prooves to be a success; with Tom Cruise he got the perfect innocent-looking guy, and Nicole Kidman can show what a great actress she really is; and it's also nice to indeed have a married couple perform as a married couple, as it is nice to see a Christmas tree in every single scene. One controversial part of the movie is the nudity, but it is an essential part of the movie, it serves a purpose different from the obvious one. The film is for me almost undescribable in its impact, and when I drove home from the cinema I couldn't turn on the radio, I was still a bit dizzy. It's a great film to say goodbye, and with Kubrick's death the world lost one of the greatest directors of all time. (Mar 21, 2000)