Sep 24, 2001 03:54 PM
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I am still pretty much endecided about this movie - not lest because it tended to lose me as time went on. I like STanley Kubrik and I find it hard to believe that his last movie would be as abysmal as this one feels. There must be more to it, surely I am missing out on something big here! Surely.
Well from what I can make of it the story attempts to be mysterious and at the same time get the audience asking their partners questions. It is to develop the natural jealousies and suspicions withing everyone who thinks they are happily married or safe with their partner. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman star in the lead roles as a couple who seem to be perfect. Kidman however is unhappy at her husbands working and how he refuses to beome jealous over her so she confesses to an affair which she 'almost' had to push him over the edge. He goes over, storms out and tries very hard to be unfaithful himself - he never achieves it. There is a lot of agaonising and characters telling stories and some mysterious goings on that seem to have nothing to do with anything. Cruise lands up at a mysterious orgy where he shouldn't be and is found out but rescued by an equally mysterious woman - who later turns up dead. He gets obsessed thinking the cult killed her and wants to go back. It all gets very exciting(it does?) and umm well the gist of it is Kubrik brings their idyllic life to a pile of rubble. The message? No clue. I could guess, but I won't watch the movie and decide for yourself if you must or listen to me and save yourself a very long boring couple of hours.
This movie makes no sense. Or should I say, the sense it makes is so dull, lifeless and plainly badly done, that you hope that it makes no sense. I do hope I am missing something. Cruise is quite good here but looks agonised and indecisive for the most part, whilst Kidman is absolutely abysmal, no two ways about it. Mysteries intertwine with mysteries to make a mess and a muddle and at the end of the day its all very painful and about 40 minutes too long. There are plenty or different characters here who all have a story to tell and they provide at least some interest but the overall movie lost me and bored me because of it. Camerawork is good and such like, but its just painful overall. What was Kubrik thinking? Do we have a stupidly long movie to just say ''watch your back'' to all complacent lovers? Ugh! Please.
