Open your eyes.....Sure to polarize but undoubtedly well crafted, Cameron Crowe's VANILLA SKY leaves you mystified and challenged.
Tom Cruise stars as David Aames, a wealthy young publishing magnate with every woman and indulgence at his disposal.
In an opening scene that hints at the mystery to follow, Cruise drives his Porsche into the middle of Times Square and he doesn't see another soul on the way there, or when he arrives. He gets out of his car and runs at full tilt, terrified by being the only person in his world. (Crowe and team blocked off a huge area of NYC one Sunday morning to film these scenes, there is no CGI involved and the sequence is amazing.)
Cameron Diaz is at her best as Julie Gianni, a beautiful friend and casual sex partner of David's.
Early in the film, David throws an impossibly stylish and well attended birthday party in his huge Manhattan mansion-like apartment. Steven Spielberg and every beautiful model within the boroughs attend, but David only has eyes for Sofia, a stranger brought to the party by David's best friend Brian (Jason Lee).
Sofia is played by Penelope Cruz and you can see why David is enthralled. She is unimpressed with his wealth, completely herself and real. (?)
David ends up taking Sofia home, spending the night with only a powerful kiss goodbye. But Julie has followed him and is waiting outside. As she convinces David to get in her car so they can talk, he begins to realize that Julie considers them far more than friends and the film spins off into a very different direction.
Suddenly, we are watching the film from two different viewpoints, one with David in prison accused of murder and the second a series of flashbacks of what may or may not be happening.
To say more from this point, perhaps only 25 minutes into the film, would ruin the many surprises and visual gifts that Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous) has in store.
Very little is as it seems in Vanilla Sky. Upon a second viewing, there are many visual and aural clues crammed into scenes from its first moments.
Crowe has created a Lynch-like hypnotic dream of a film, a mashup of a drama, love story, mystery and science fiction. Many have and will continue to debate how well the puzzle works, but I was never less than interested.
The cast is superb and every moment is a visual overload of clues, beauty, ugly truths and false leads.
Cruise is terrific wearing multiple faces and the soundtrack is everything you'd expect from a Crowe film.
Vanilla Sky can be confounding, but I would rather be challenged by a flawed film that overreaches than bored by a predictable movie.
Never predictable, Crowe and team get an A.
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