EYES WIDE SHUT
Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Reviewed by Ken Weavers

Eyes Wide Shut was the last film to be made by one of the greatest writer-directors of the second half of the twentieth century, whose best films include 2001: a Space Odyssey, Dr Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and the original Lolita. Kubrick died suddenly not long after the film’s completion, and so it remains as his swan song, the final testament of a troubled and earnest psyche, whose tribulations come to rest at last with this tale of a marriage burdened by philanderings and jealousy, but which ultimately, though ambiguously, seems to survive.

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, married in real life, play the attractive and wealthy couple with a young daughter, who are the kind of people one might wrongly imagine are too fortunate to have any problems. The long opening scene, at a party, sets out the films premisses. The pair casually part, only to meet again some hours later. In the interval, Kidman has successfully fended off an amorous roué and her own desires, while Cruise, who is a doctor, has been rescued from two nymphets by a medical emergency – a girl lying in a coma after a drug overdose. The ensuing intimate scene of mutual confession between the two protagonists is movingly and delicately acted, but it sets Cruise off, spurred by his own jealousy and erotic fantasies, on a long, crazy adventure in the murky, depraved depths of the city’s night life. It is easy for him in this state of mind to imagine there are beautiful girls everywhere who cannot resist him. Yet it is at this point that we slip into the world of Alfred Hitchcock: reduced to his own resources, the hero is lost in an unfamiliar, sinister and hostile realm, even though it is one which he has entered voluntarily. His eyes remain as firmly shut to his better judgement, his loving wife and his responsibilities, as they are wide open to the charms of each alluring girl who passes. An unexpected call from his wife rescues him from one ill-conceived dalliance, only to lead him to another, far more dangerous one. Soon, he finds himself in a world of bizarre rituals, orgiastic indulgence, and harsh retribution, as a disguised intruder at a mansion populated by masked aficionados and naked, available girls. It is the cold, gloomy sphere of Paul Delvaux, where beauty lingers with death, and amid landscapes of dreams, love is analysed like a geometrical conundrum. One girl tries to warn him of his danger, only to take on his unknown punishment, leaving Cruise in a moral vacuum. Next day, he comes to himself, and tries to find out what has happened, but is confounded at each turn, unable to trace those involved, helpless before an organisation that is too big to break. He fears his wife may discover his secret, and he fears for her safety if he probes too far. He is a lost and lonely figure. But she is loyal, and, at the end of the film, offers him hope.

Detractors of the film may feel it lacks a definite, tangible edge. It offers no simple solutions and does not resolve the problems it sets. We do not know if the mysterious disappearances are coincidental, or if they are the victims of a powerful undercover organisation. We do not know how the marriage works out, or why the costumier changes his mind about his daughter, or who the girl was who saved him. Was the whole thing a playful jape by an old master at his audience’s expense? I personally believe Kubrick felt this drama quite deeply. At that level, certainties are illusory, and self-discovery is gradual.

This film can be appreciated as a professional, well-told, well-acted story, from a man with a wealth of experience of how to make a good film. In common with his other works, it is not for the prudish or the squeamish, or for those who expect a simple story and a plain moral, or a bland effort that follows predictable patterns like so many modern films. It will make you think, and take you into uncharted territory. It should not be missed by anyone seriously interested in cinema.