Vanilla Sky

Reviewed by:
Deborah Day

If you like your films with multiple-personality disorder, Vanilla Sky’s just what you need for the holidays. Is it a drama, romantic comedy, sci-fi flick, or actioner? Such is the state of our dream lives, but do you really want to sit through that crap while you’re still awake? That’s loosely the question here when a big-time New York publisher (Tom Cruise) is disfigured in an accident caused by a jealous lover (Cameron Diaz). He subsequently must confront his own arrogance and vanity and find redemption on the road to true love—aw—coincidentally, with a character played by one of the most beautiful women in the world, Penélope Cruz (note: topless at points). Then there’s a bizarre twist, and you just don’t know who—or what—to trust. Fun, if you’re a philosophy major; maybe not so much if you’re hoping that director Cameron Crowe will here recapture some of the charm of his films Almost Famous (for which he rightly pulled down a writing Oscar) or even good old Say Anything…

Instead, Crowe serves up his very own Eyes Wide Shut: big actor (actually, the same actor, with Cruise again in the rich, pretty-boy, annoying, fucked-up-guy role), psychological thriller, tears-for-the-wealthy foundering plot, and so on. We won’t even go into the fact that this is a remake of a 1997 Spanish film, in which Cruz played the exact same role as hottie love interest Sofia (OK, so we went into it). It’s Hitchcock, Kubrick, shades of Buñuel’s That Obscure Object of Desire (thanks, Professor Schufreider), Twilight Zone, and acid trip all in one—which is fine, if you like that kind of thing.

Bit of trivia: One of the publishing mogul’s magazines, called Rise (very subtle, Cameron), is shown briefly as staffers try to get the boss to settle on the cover. Could be wrong, but we thought we recognized the image as one from a Maxim shoot with covergirl Izabella Miko. Hmmmm…

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