Vanilla Sky (2001)
Starring: Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Kurt Russell, Tilda Swinton
Director: Cameron Crowe
Synopsis: Deep philosphical "intellectual" stuff or pretentious piece of garbage?
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

 

 

Tom Cruise plays David Aames, a smarmy, thoroughly self-satisfied git of a man who appears to have won life's lottery. The most beautiful women in town are captivated by him, immense wealth is merely another mundane fact of existence, and he inhabits the kind of luxurious Manhattan apartment the rest of us can only dream about—if only fleetingly.

Of course, this being the movies, such bliss merely signals the calm before the storm.

It doesn't take long before one particular beauty begins to upset David's carefully manicured existence.

At the same time, David falls hopelessly in love with the doe-eyed Sofia (Penélope Cruz), an enchanting Spanish dancer whose warmth and innocence seem to promise something more meaningful than his shallow existence has thus far offered. Unfortunately, former lover Julie (Cameron Diaz) takes rather less kindly to being discarded. Before long she is behaving as though she is auditioning for Fatal Attraction 2, driving both herself and David into a horrific car crash that leaves her dead and him hideously disfigured.

David's perfect life collapses overnight.

His once handsome face becomes a mass of scars, forcing him to hide behind a latex mask, while he is arrested and accused of murder. Gradually, however, reconstructive surgery appears to restore both his appearance and his relationship with Sofia. Could there yet be redemption after tragedy? Might suffering finally give depth to a man who has spent his life skating effortlessly across the surface? Can love survive beyond beauty?

There are certainly no shortage of themes for Vanilla Sky to explore.

Jealousy. Possession. Love. Sex. Identity. Plastic surgery. Reality. Dreams.

Needless to say, I shall avoid revealing exactly what transpires, because the screenplay is built almost entirely around its increasingly elaborate twists. Depending upon your tolerance for this sort of thing, you may either find yourself marvelling at its ingenuity or rolling your eyes every few minutes as layer upon layer of pretentiousness piles up.

I found myself firmly in the latter camp.

Vanilla Sky is, quite simply, an excruciating experience.

Ironically, the film's greatest asset is Cameron Diaz, who delivers a wonderfully unhinged performance despite having comparatively little screen time. Tom Cruise, by contrast, seems painfully self-conscious throughout, forever posturing and posing instead of creating a believable human being.

Then there is Penélope Cruz.

Let's just say that she—how you say in Eengleesh?—makes Sophia Loren look like the greatest actress who ever lived.

The real culprit, however, is Cameron Crowe. His scrapbook style of filmmaking, so perfectly suited to Almost Famous, is hopelessly mismatched with material that demands precision, restraint and genuine psychological tension. Instead, Crowe bombards the audience with an endless parade of nostalgic pop songs, each one crashing awkwardly into the narrative just as the film attempts to say something profound. The result is a constant collision between adolescent sentimentality and philosophical ambition.

It simply doesn't work.

What was widely promoted as an intelligent, thought-provoking exploration of reality and identity turns out instead to be shallow, unbearably pretentious and, ultimately, rather stupid.

Either this ranks among the most cringe-inducing cinematic experiences of recent years...

...or perhaps I was simply too stupid to understand it.

"Love. Hate. Dreams. Life. Work. Play. Friendship. Sex." proclaims the film's hopelessly self-important tagline.

Might I humbly suggest adding one more word?

Crap.

It has rather a nice ring to it, don't you think?