Open Your Eyes
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VHS Movie Reviews of Open Your Eyes
Movie Review: call me a dumb American...
Summary: 2 Stars
...but I loved Vanilla Sky much more than this. I thought that the confusion of the storyline was heightened in Open Your Eyes. Penelope Cruz was so much more playful in Vanilla Sky, and the love was so much more magical. Plus, the music from Vanilla Sky really blew my mind. Honestly, having V Sky open with Radiohead's "Everything in Its Right Place" is so ironic but so evocative of this bizarre generation I'm from, overloaded with technology and media. I kept trying to love "Open Your Eyes," but I think Tom Cruise was just strangely perfect as the leading man.
You need not agree with me, fans of Open Your Eyes, but you have to admit that the love was so much more passionate and flirtatious in Crowe's film and that Cameron Diaz was perfectly frightening as the nightmare ex. And how do you top Jeff Buckley's "This is Our Last Goodbye" when he leaves Sophia's apartment? Under Crowe's direction, Vanilla Sky just hit me and toyed with my perceptions of reality. I give a friendly and generous nod to the movie that can do that.
Movie Review: Perchance to Dream....
Summary: 5 Stars
This mesmerizing and original Spanish film from director Alejandro Amenabar is about the life we dream of, and the life we're given, and the manner in which it is told is nothing short of brilliant.
Eduardo Noriega portrays a shallow bed-hopping young man named Ceaser who has never given a second thought to real love until he falls for Sophia, who just happens to be the girl his best friend brings to his birthday party.
Penelope Cruz gives a sexy and luminous performance in her own language as the charming Sophia. Contrasting her is Najwa Nimri as the overtly sexual Nuria, the one night stand who has Ceaser's shallow number and refuses to just go away. She plays on his weaker personality by accusing him of being scared to take a ride with her for one last fling and the aftermath is a mind altering journey.
An apparently disfigured Ceaser finds himself in the criminal psychiatric ward after being accused of a murder he can't remember anything about. He tries to sort through his dreams, and possibly his memories, with the help of Antonio (Cheta Lera) and begins to slowly unravel what is real and what is imagined. To reveal more would ruin the journey for the viewer.
This film is a terrific thriller that ultimately becomes a heartfelt drama of what can happen when we put the emphasis on the shallow and realize the need for tenderness and love too late. The performances are solid, the fawn like grace of Cruz a standout, lifting this film far above its inferior American remake. The ending will linger with the viewer a long time.
This film is a fine argument for expanding your film library to include great foreign films such as this one. Pick this up as soon as you can.
Movie Review: No stars, one idea, and two hours wasted.
Summary: 1 Stars
A very disappointing film. Disappointing on many levels. As you can tell already, this is a very critical review and if you wish to avoid so-called 'spoilers' then do not read any further; however, if you wish to avoid wasting two hours on an ultimately empty cinematic experience, then read on for an account of the whole dreary mess.
*
That waking reality can be difficult to differentiate from a dream is not a new idea. The ancient Greeks dwelt upon this notion; Eastern religions ponder its ramifications; Rene Descartes made much of it; countless science fiction writers have used it for their own purposes. Unfortunately, the director here has nothing to add to what has been said before. In fact, he chooses to ignore the wisdom of his predescessors and actually says very little indeed. If you have seen the film, then ask yourself what thoughts did it provoke aside from the most basic question of how to distinguish dream from reality - it gives you no conceptual tools with which to think further upon this subject. In terms of ideas, it is a very empty film. Indeed, it is interesting that even the positive reviews of this film do not elaborate any of the alleged 'ideas', merely gesturing, yet again, towards the 'mind-twisting' effects of the blur between dream and the real.
*
It is also empty on an emotional level. The characters' behaviour is either poorly or simplistically motivated. The narcissistic lead male is disfigured and his reaction is to become angry and bitter. The Penelope Cruz character is seduced by good looks and money, and then is repulsed by physical disfigurement. The so-called 'best friend' consistently enacts the role of a subservient 'loser', with no development. None of this is nuanced, the characters do not develop, and the plot twists not because of the characters' motivations, but seemingly of its own accord - it is very close to being very boring, as it is difficult to care for anyone in this film. Do you learn anything about friendship, or about love, by watching this: no - if you keep watching at all it could well be to find out the technical details of how the 'surprise' plot pieces together.
*
The acting is pretty rudimentary. Again, this largely stems from a lack of complex motivation inherent in the characters. It is very much a case of one emotion being displayed at a time - I'm not surprised that this appealed to Tom Cruise as he brings this kind of shallowness to virtually every role he plays.
*
The look of the film is that of a typical Hollywood big budget thriller. The actors are good looking, their characters are rich and so can drive flash cars and inhabit swanky homes, and interactions with others are stereotypical and stupid (the interview with a panel of plastic surgeons is laughable, taking place in a huge minimalist office seemingly at the top of a skyscraper; ditto the 'gritty' interaction with the 'caring' psychiatrist). It is nothing that you haven't seen before and that you will no doubt see again, ad nauseam.
*
Amenabar is grossly over-rated. His films offer little in the way of ideas and even less in terms of insight into human interaction.
Movie Review: Fable about the Fate of a Playboy
Summary: 4 Stars
What happens to a handsome, rich womanizer after he loses his pretty face in a car accident? This is the premise of Open Your Eyes, the superior version of the fable that was made into the overracted Vanilla Sky.
To add to the plot's complexity, our anti-hero makes a deal with the devil, so to speak, a slick French entrepreneur who markets "eternal life" to those who will freeze their bodies and allow a scientific firm free reign over people's unconscious. The result is a lot of confusing cuts back and forth between our character's real and dream state, something that has caused a lot of frustration and confusion for many viewers. My take on the film is that you should not get bogged down too much into trying to figure out what is happening. Rather, look at the film as a moral fable, Twilight Zone style, where a nihilistic playboy must face punishment for his misdeeds in his own self-created hell. Clearly, this is a film about perdition, where we make our own personal damnation. The film reminds me a little of Mulholland Dr. in this respect. And it reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode where a crook's idea of paradise turns out to be hell. For a literary equivalent, I recommend the novel The Third Policeman, which also deals with hell as a sort of bad dream you can never wake from.
Why only four stars, not five? Because the middle section is redundant and could have been 20 minutes shorter. This film, edited at about 95 minutes, would have been leaner and better paced than the 117 minute version that was released.
Movie Review: occassionally remakes are better
Summary: 3 Stars
i was going to get "vanilla sky" but when i did the search for it the engine also pulled up "abre los ojes," the original movie on which "vanilla sky" was based. or translated. i really liked vanilla sky. i read a bunch of the reviews on amazon and basically people were saying they didn't see much of a difference, or the original was better, etc. etc. so i took a chance. i must say i am disappointed. maybe having to read everything in subtitles took away from the cacophony of sounds and voices, as i certainly am not fluent in spanish. however, i think what i missed most was color. vanilla sky takes a painting as the basis of its visuals. the world is infused with color, so i really enjoyed the cinematography in sky. while the two movies have identical scenes, are shot very much the same a majority of the time, the treatment of light, the movement in scenes, are so much different. vanilla is softer. abre makes everything too harsh and the soundtrack is too heavy-handed. abre took the feeling out of the situation in an attempt to build shock and suspense. vanilla sky also develops all the characters a little more, and overall, the actors give better performances, including penelope cruz. which is needed to feel more attached to the people and situation. the characters are a lot more sympathetic and human in vanilla, and there are a few more flashback montages. scenes are more fluid and put together. while vanilla absolutely could not exist without "abre" i was surprised to see that the remake was better. this might be budget? since "abre" has a sundance film logo on it, but it still doesn't change the film quality.
and my preference has nothing to do with tom cruise, either, as i could usually take or leave him. i like foreign films. vanilla sky just seems more solid. i guess you win some and lose some.