The majority stock owner of a big-time publishing firm, David has everything he wants - a great job with short hours, a spectacular Manhattan pad, and a gorgeous female pal named Julie (Cameron Diaz) who's willing to have sex with him whenever the urge hits (which seems to be fairly often). The Spanish-language film is the better version, but Vanilla Sky is a credible substitute for subtitle-phobic audiences.ĭavid Aames (Tom Cruise) has the world in the palm of his hand. Crowe has brought his own unique strengths to bear upon the material, staying very much in step with Open Your Eyes while adding some warmth and clarity that were not evident in the cooler, more ambiguous original. Vanilla Sky is a faithful remake of Alejandro Amenabar's Open Your Eyes, but, like all good remakes, it can stand on its own and does not fade and discolor in the face of the original. Crowe shows immense respect for his source material, but not the kind of slavish reverence lavished upon the book-to-movie conversion of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Not only is this his initial foray into the much-maligned realm of remakes, but it's the first time he has performed without the safety net of being firmly rooted in pop culture elements. ![]() Vanilla Sky gives new meaning to the familiar phrase from a children's song: "Life is but a dream."įor director Cameron Crowe, the man behind Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous, Vanilla Sky represents a groundbreaking career move. ![]() There are plenty of philosophical musings on the difference between dreams and reality, and numerous occasions in which the film dares us to tell them apart. Like its predecessor, Vanilla Sky is a mind-bending excursion across genres - a warped fairy tale that dabbles in romance, mythology, horror, mystery, and science fiction. No matter how sarcastically envious men might summarize the central character’s problems - hmmm, Cruz or Diaz? Gosh, that would be torture - only a churl could find no sympathy with his guilt-wracked ordeal.Vanilla Sky (the name refers to a painting by Monet) is the quirkily titled American remake of the 1997 Spanish language feature, Open Your Eyes. As usual Crowe’s use of music (wife Nancy Wilson’s score, interwoven with the likes of Dylan, R.E.M., Radiohead and a title song composed by Paul McCartney) adds bonus dividends. It’s all carefully composed with suggestive references and allusions, alternating layers of dream, reality and confessional flashback related by the masked David to his understandably riveted psychologist (Russell, serving well as a baffled, tenacious interrogator on behalf of the audience).Ĭruz, reprising her role from the Spanish original, meets the requirement of being enchanting, Diaz as “the saddest woman to ever hold a martini” is unnervingly nuanced between perky seductiveness and menace, and the unbalancing act is sustained by a strong supporting cast that includes Timothy Spall, Noah Taylor and Tilda Swinton.įrom the eerie opening sequence, Crowe and cinematographer John Toll use New York like an autumnal fairytale realm, with Monet skies and clues to the truth sprinkled through the set decoration. Let it suffice to say that David is worn down from a cocksure man-about-town to a complete physical and mental wreck, fearful of “inviting happiness in without a full body search”. To say much about the plot would be as cruel as the nightmarishly bizarre and relentlessly unsettling events that beset the protagonist, since much of the compelling intrigue and emotional impact come from putting some work into fathoming what is happening. Thankfully, speculative philosophy comes with haunting visual flourish and profundity is leavened with poignance and flashes of Crowe’s customary warmth and humour. The character of David Aames is effectively Jerry Maguire on a bad acid trip, with disfigurement and hallucinatory alienation wiping that winning, signature smirk off his face after the crisis.Ĭruise is in fact more impossibly gorgeous than ever, between affecting stints brooding in a blank mask and tormented under remarkable prosthetics, and Crowe is confident enough in our continuing delight in looking at him to attempt his darkest, most ambitious and artiest work to date. ![]() ![]() Oscar nomination number four should surely, therefore, follow? Tom Cruise loses his looks and his mind in Cameron Crowe’s much-anticipated cover version of Alejandro Amenábar’s 1997 psychological thriller, Open Your Eyes.
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