"Eyes Wide Shut" review

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Writing credits Stanley Kubrick

Tom Cruise.... Dr. William 'Bill' Harford
Nicole Kidman.... Alice Harford
Madison Eginton.... Helena Harford
Sydney Pollack.... Victor Ziegler
Todd Field.... Nick Nightingale
Leelee Sobieski.... Milich's Daughter

Sex is bad. It's so bad that even imagining having any would be disastrous. Tom Cruise hits the streets after his wife tells him of a fantasy she had of another man. How dare she?!Everywhere he goes, he is denied. A teen nympho, a hooker, even an orgy end in a complete bust for him. And this is Tom Cruise we're talking about. If he can't have sex at an orgy, he must be floating through a nightmare.

This film has one fatal flaw. It's boring. Terribly boring. The pauses are agonizing. The scene where they are waiting for the guard at the gate while the piano hits one note over and over is torture. Any merit this film has is drowned out by the sheer nothingness of the action.

I still love the trailer for this film. The Chris Issak song was great over mysterious, sexy pictures of Cruise and Kidman. It was sold as a sex thriller. I guess it wouldn't have made too much money if it was sold as the impotent dream movie.

SCORE: 2 out of 4 Cruises dreaming of impotency