‘No dream is ever just a dream...’
There is an argument that Tom Cruise is the greatest leading man of all time. I don’t mean the greatest actor. The two things are different. But if we are judging performance based on the actor’s ability to carry a huge blockbuster single-handedly, Cruise is your man. He does have his detractors, however. What cannot be denied is that Stanley Kubrick is a visionary director, and Nicole Kidman is perhaps the greatest actress of her generation. Put all these ingredients together and the result is something as special as Eyes Wide Shut…
Dr. William Harford (Cruise) is a man that has it all. A beautiful family, the adoration of women everywhere, doctor to the bourgeoisie and high society… and yet, something is missing. A chance encounter with Nick Nightingale (Todd Field), an old college buddy, sees Harford in over his head and about as far away from his life with his doting wife Alice (Kidman) as it is possible to get. Elsewhere, an impromptu appointment with Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack), a rich client, finds Harford sucked deeper into a strange conspiracy involving masked sex parties and a secret society.
Eyes Wide Shut is a film that has always been difficult to disconnect from the noise surrounding it. A notoriously lengthy shoot coupled with the fact that Cruise and Kidman were married in real life ensured that Eyes Wide Shut was already controversial, even without all the gratuitous nudity and graphic sex scenes. Add in the fact that this was Kubrick’s final film (he died suddenly four days after filming wrapped), and it becomes almost impossible to view Eyes Wide Shut on face value. And this is a shame, because this is a genuine masterpiece.
Cruise does often do his best work in films that have a more traditional leading man role, but he is incredible here. The dichotomy of a man who is usually so in sync with the world suddenly becoming untethered from reality is a delicious one, and Cruise plays it to perfection. The long, draining, verbose scenes that Cruise shares with both Kidman and Pollack are absolutely sensational, unsurprising as Kubrick was notorious for demanding multiple takes (the scene between Cruise and Pollack in Ziegler’s gaming room required over 200 takes before Kubrick was satisfied).
Eyes Wide Shut is not as well thought of as much of Kubrick’s other work, but if you strip away the hype and the narrative surrounding the film, you are left with something truly momentous. A classic.