Eyes Wide Shut

EYES WIDE SHUT (18)

D: Stanley Kubrick

Warner Bros./Pole Star/Hobby (Stanley Kubrick)

USA/UK 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 1999

159 mins

Drama/Mystery

W: Stanley Kubrick & Frederic Raphael [based on the novella "Dream Story/Traumnovelle" by Arthur Schnitzler]

DP: Larry Smith

Ed: Nigel Galt

Mus: Jocelyn Pook

PD: Les Tomkins & Roy Walker

Tom Cruise (Dr. Bill Harford), Nicole Kidman (Alice Harford), Sydney Pollack (Victor Ziegler), Marie Richardson (Marion Nathanson), Rade Sherbedgia (Mr. Milich), Todd Field (Nick Nightingale)

Eyes Wide Shit. Stanley Kubrick's last ever picture was publicised on the scandalous notion that it featured a steamy sex scene with (then real-life couple) Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman.

The film begins with upper-class Manhattan couple having a tiff when Alice Harford (Kidman) admits to her well-to-do doctor husband William (Cruise) that she has fantasised about having sex with other men. William, angered by the confession, embarks on a night of sexual temptation, gatecrashing a masked orgy at a swanky mansion whilst Nicole Kidman just sits around looking stinky.

Kubrick's film isn't erotic, profound or even shocking, it just seems like a pretentious excuse to show a load of tits. Conspiracy theorists claim that the film is something deep and meaningful about the existence of the Illuminati, a secret society that control the world, and Kubrick's death prior to the release of the film and the studio cutting scenes out was to cover up this, but I personally think that's reaching for something that just isn't there.

There's some good production design and camerawork, but this is a disappointing swansong to Kubrick's excellent career.

5/10