Vanilla Sky

Starring: Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Kurt Russell, Jason Lee, Tilda Swinton
Directed by: Cameron Crowe
Rating: R
Genre: Thriller, Drama
2001

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A spoiled rich man (Tom Cruise) is sleeping with a model (Carmen Diaz). The engagement works fine until he meets the woman of his dreams (Penelope Cruz) at his birthday party. In a fit of jealousy, the model drives a car with her and the rich man off a bridge, killing her, and seriosuly scaring Cruise. The movie goes on for another two hours, but it is so confusing, I'm not even going to try and explain it.

Review:

Tim: Every so often, a film comes along that makes me question why I put myself through the torture of watching movies, and writing painful reviews on them. Vanilla Sky was one such film. This movie was so horrible on so many levels that I do not even know where to begin.

The first thing to mention was how confusing the film was. Many films are confusing for various reasons: to bewilder the viewer, to draw them into the story, to peak their interests, etc. However, Vanilla Sky was confusing for a different reason (at least I think so). I believe Vanilla Sky was so incredibly confusing because that makes the viewers spend so much time and energy on trying to figure out what is going on that they do not have a moment to realize that the movie they are watching is horrible. Throughout the film, I admit I was thoroughly confused. At one point, I remember thinking, “Wow, this is either a really, really good movie, or a really, really awful movie. To save you all the suspense, I discovered it was the latter.

It is difficult to sum up the performance of Tom Cruise. He was not awful in the film, but seeing him in this movie did not make me like him any more than I usually do (and I don’t have a particularly high respect for Mr. Cruise’s work). While in a few scenes he is above par, most of his work is run-of-the-mill acting. The worst part of his character is that I had to spend so much time looking at his nasty and disfigured face (sorry to spoil the film a bit, but trust me- you don’t want to watch this one, anyway). Tom Cruise fans out there, PLEASE, don’t see this film- I fear your respect for him will drop down even lower than it is now.

On a good note (and these are difficult to find with this film), Penelope Cruz was excellent in her role. I have not seen her in too many films, but I genuinely liked her in this film. She was not particularly excellent in any scene, but she did what she did quite well. For Penelope Cruz fans, you may wish to suffer through this god awful film simply to see her excellent work, but my advice is pick a different flick.

I should also mention the smaller role of Kurt Russell was very good. I was not aware Russell was in the film, but I thank God he was: he was the one character I genuinely liked, and enjoyed every moment of film time he received. Russell’s character does not play a major role in the film, yet he was my favorite character. If you do decide not to heed my warnings (may God have mercy on your soul…), then I advise you to pay special attention to Russell- he does an excellent job.

All in all, if you haven’t figured it out yet, I completely hope no one out there will watch this horrible and much too long film. I am simply doing my duty as a movie reviewer- I do not want anyone else wasting two and a half hours of their life like I did. I had heard the film was not very good, but I did not listen, and watched it anyway… much to my chagrin. Please, please, please, pick a different film. This movie is just plain bad from beginning to end, trying very hard to accomplish… hell, I have no idea what this film was trying to do, I only know that it did not succeed.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 2.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend:
(You really enjoyed this film????) oh well, try this: Open Your Eyes, Eyes Wide Shut, Jerry Maguire