Director Stanley Kubrick died this past March, only a few days after finishing the final edit of what has become his final film, Eyes Wide Shut. Being a huge Kubrick fan, I read a number of the tributes that appeared in newspapers and magazines; and I was surprised how many critics called Kubrick a "young man's filmmaker." Their point was that the flashiness and sheer audacity of works like 2001, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket were qualities that thrilled the relatively young but lessened in appeal as you got older.
Given those qualifications, Eyes Wide Shut is a shift to older audiences. Gone are the spectacular camera movement of movies like The Shining and the flights of fancy that dominate 2001. Rather Eyes is a movie about a marriage in upper-class New York, a marriage that up till now has been running smoothly but is about to hit a patch of rough road.
The film opens with Dr. Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) and his wife Alice (Nicole Kidman, Cruise's real-life spouse) going to a Christmas party hosted by wealthy New Yorker Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack). The affair is a large gathering, so it's no surprise that the couple get separated, with Bill being surrounded by two gorgeous models and Alice dancing with a suave though aggressive older gentleman. The couple escape from the party with their fidelity intact and retreat to their posh Manhattan apartment for a night of, we're meant to assume, passionate sex between a couple who love each other.
What's not in doubt is that they do love each otherKubrick and his actors do a fabulous job of communicating that emotion through little bits of dialogue and gestures. Despite their attachment, though, all is not well with the Harfords. The following night, Bill and Alice get into an argument over what happened at the party. She's at first angry over his flirting but then gets even more upset when he's unconcerned about her flirting. Indeed, it's his unwavering faith in her integrity (along with the pot she's been smoking) that provokes Alice into admitting a previous indiscretion.
This scene, a long conversation with simple editing, no camera movement and little music is a tour de force of acting and directing. Kidman's drug-influenced storytelling is compelling and almost terrifying. As her story gathers momentum and the hardness grows on Cruise's face, we know that this marriage has passed a point of no return. And this feeling is helped immeasurably by Kubrick's directorial decisions: simple camera placements so as not to distract from the argument, a flat sound design which highlights the story and the faintest hint of music to accentuate the growing conflict.
Then the phone rings, and the movie takes a right turn. Bill is called away to an emergency; but after dealing with it, he doesn't go home but rather wanders the streets of New York replaying his wife's story in his mind. The decisions he makes in the next few hours whether to sleep with a prostitute, whether to go to an orgy, whether to tell his wife make up the lion's share of the movie. Which is my one main quibble of Eyes Wide Shut.
The nighttime adventures of Cruise, while compelling in their own right (particularly an encounter with a prostitute and her roommate), mean that Kidman is offscreen for major portions of the film. And that's a shame, because her performance (a sure Oscar nominee) along with the obvious chemistry she and Cruise share are the best parts of the movie. Kubrick's decision to cast a real-life couple is a fabulous one. The audience truly believes these two love each other, which makes the subsequent unraveling all the more powerful.
Much has been made in the pre-release hype about the abundance of nudity and sex. And there's something to that the very first shot of the film is from behind Kidman as she undresses. But those going to see the movie for its titillation will probably be disappointed. Yes, we see a lot of flesh (though very little of Cruise's who spends most of the movie wrapped in a coat), but it's very impersonal and decidedly unerotic. People are literally trying to kiss through masks.
This binary of honesty and hiding is the central theme of Kubrick's film. At first, Alice's naked honesty seems misguided and destructive, and when a character blurts out "I'll tell you everything," the audience is tempted to recoil in horror. But Kubrick shows the bankruptcy of deception as well. Pollack's character, who lives behind walls of lies, is thoroughly despicable. And when one of Alice's suitors purrs "Don't you think that one of the charms of marriage is that it makes a necessity of deception for both parties?" you want her to slap his face.
Though Kubrick's direction isn't as startling here as in his other, more flamboyant pictures, it's no less assured. Eyes Wide Shut could be used as a textbook of camera placement and framing. Notice when Bill and the prostitute kiss where each is in relation to the frame. Notice where Cruise and Kidman stand in relation to one another and to the empty space around them. Notice the vast distance between Cruise and Pollack in their closing confrontation. To see any Kubrick on video, with its pan-and-scan alterations, is a great disservice. That is certainly true in his last movie.
Much more could be written about Eyes Wide Shut, its eclectic and effective use of music (particularly the striking of one piano key over and over again), its lighting and set design which evoke past Kubrick works (The Shining especially) its use of recurring motifs. It should be noted that, as strong a work as Eyes Wide Shut is, it's not for everybody. It is a long (165 minutes), challenging film. Absorbing, yes, but difficult as well. And while it may not measure up to Kubrick's masterpieces, at least in this "young" filmgoer's mind, it is a great film and well worth seeing.
J Robert Parks
