# Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

### reviewed by
Bob Bloom

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) 3 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Sydney Pollack. Directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Eyes Wide Shut is an examination of betrayal.

Director Stanley Kubrick's final film looks at the consequences of marital infidelity.

He does so by scrutinizing this premise: Is it being unfaithful to your spouse if you fantasize about having an affair with another person?

This is the issue that is raised by William Harford (Tom Cruise) and his wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman), who have been married happily, it seems for nine years.

William is a successful doctor. Alice, who used to manage an art gallery, now stays at home and takes care of the couple's daughter.

After attending a party at the home of their friend, Victor Ziegler (director Sydney Pollack), in which two women come on to William and a charming gentleman named Sandor Szavost tries to seduce Alice, the couple return to their lavish apartment and get on with their lives.

The next night, as the two are sharing a joint, Alice asks William if he was tempted by the women. William says he wasn't because he loves Alice and being faithful is one of the tenets of marriage.

Alice, a bit high, then admits to her husband that a year ago, while on vacation, she fantasized about having sex with a naval officer she spotted in the hotel at which they were staying.

William is most upset by this revelation and cannot cope with the fact that his wife even for an instant contemplated being unfaithful.

This starts William on a dangerous and self-revealing course that leads him through the dark sexual underbelly of New York's elite.

Kubrick's movie is sexually frank, provocative and disturbing.

The director, who co-wrote the script with Frederic Raphael, was inspired by the 1920s novel Traumnovelle by Arthur Schnitzler.

And as in most Kubrick works, the technical aspects of Eyes Wide Shut draw you into his world.

At times he uses his camera like a voyeur, eavesdropping on his actors as they discuss the intimate details of their relationship.

In the scene where Szavost tries to seduce Alice on the dance floor, the camera continuously circles the two.

Kubrick's use of colors, especially yellow in the opening party sequence, also helps set the tone of the film.

The director's use of music also heightens the drama. The discordant notes of the minimalist piano piece "Musica Ricerata, II," mixed with such divergent tunes as "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing" by Chris Isaak as well as such standards as "I'm in the Mood for Love" and "I Only Have Eyes for You," are the exclamation points as Kubrick's story moves along.

Kubrick has never really been known as an actor's director. When you think of his films, you think of the "Dawn of Man" or the space station sequences from 2001 or Slim Pickens riding the atomic bomb near the finale of Dr. Strangelove.

In Eyes Wide Shut he has encouraged and succeeded in getting Cruise and Kidman to bare themselves emotionally. Cruise, because of his looks, has always been underrated as an actor. But time and again, in such films as The Color of Money, Born on the Fourth of July and Rain Man, he has proven he is a performer of subtlety and depth.

Here he adds a vulnerability and a sense of uncertainty that makes his odyssey all the more desperate and poignant.

You feel sorry for William because you know he is not sure what he is searching for.

He also uses Cruise's looks to question his sexuality. In one scene, a bunch of New York toughs harass Cruise's

William as he is walking down the street, thinking he is gay. In another sequence, a gay hotel clerk gives "Bill" some needed information because he is infatuated with his looks.

William can't find his answers if he is not sure of the questions. Is he seeking revenge? A few times he comes close to cheating on Alice, but at the moment of crossing that line, providence continually intervenes whether it be the ringing of a telephone or a knock at the door.

Kidman, like her husband, also has been somewhat underrated because of her beauty. But in films such as To Die For, Flirting and The Portrait of a Lady, her dramatic and comedic talents have overshadowed her beauty.

That also is true in Eyes Wide Shut. Kidman opens her self up, allowing the audience to see the insecurities and doubts that exist below the surface in every marriage.

Eyes Wide Shut, at two hours and 40 minutes, is a movie that takes patience. It is an intimate, interior story, a truly mature and adult exercise. It is Kubrick examining an emotional terrain few filmmakers have had the courage to tackle.

And while many may feel the movie is obvious, plodding and a bit dull, others will find it riveting, intense and sensual. You can count me in the latter group.

Eyes Wide Shut will not be remembered as Kubrick's finest film, but it will be regarded as his most adult venture.

Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at cbloom@iquest.net

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