But in Vanilla Sky, there are so many convoluted plot points and such a minimal payoff (spoilers: David has been having a lucid dream in cryogenic suspension for 150 years and his subconscious just glitched) that trying to make sense of earlier twists is practically futile. With Memento, once the mystery is revealed, it might be a surprise twist, but it’s easier for the audience to look back to the earlier parts of the movie, and think, Oh, that makes sense, now. Where Nolan succeeds and Crowe fails is in the ultimate execution of the puzzle and the piecing together of the mystery. But Kurt Russell seems a little lost as a therapist, and Penelope Cruz, repeating her role from the original, says her lines as though she is not really fluent in English yet.It feels like Cameron Crowe was trying to recapture Memento’s success with Vanilla Sky by having one long puzzle that keeps the audience guessing. Cameron Diaz turns in a terrific performance and Tilda Swinton is excellent in a brief role as an executive. In many scenes, Cruise's famous face is covered with a latex mask, leaving him only his body and his eyes to convey all of the character's emotions.Ĭruise works hard and makes some arresting choices. And, like Hanks, he selected a story that provides the opportunity for tour-de-force acting. He may have chosen what he fears most – losing his looks and easy grace, losing his knack for owning the room. Cruise, who also produced this movie by purchasing the rights to the original, Spanish-language version, has done the same here. I suspect that Tom Hanks created the ultimate acting exercise for himself, based on what he feared most – being separated from his family. Like Cast Away, this is something of a vanity production. It tries to be a sort of Sixth Sense with sex. Vanilla Sky has a lot of surface appeal, but at its core it is as vacant as the story's main character. The R rating is deserved but there's nothing graphic or scarring here - just a fine example of how Hollywood can still make 'em like they used to. In the end, this is one hell of a movie, and one that I'd heartily recommend to parents and their teens who are looking for something creative to watch and perhaps learn from. Revealing the movie's positive elements would give away significant plot points, but let's just say that the movie ends up being a lot more positive and inspiring than you'd expect (plus, the ending is a big mind-blower). A car accident is shown on-screen, but there's no blood or gore. This scene, too, is not erotic, because the man hallucinates as he is having sex., and there are many cut-away shots to his hallucinations. The second scene shows a man engaging in sexual intercourse with a woman with violent thrusting (but no nudity). The first is post-coital and just shows some topless cuddling (the woman's breasts are shown but the whole scene is very sweet and more romantic than erotic.and the nudity has relevance to the story later on, if you believe it). Aside from that, one conversation tosses around some sexually graphic terms, including a woman talking about how she's swallowed a man's.well, you know. The "f" word is used about 30 times (over 135 minutes), frequently in a sexual context. The movie is rated R for sexuality and strong language, but in the context of the movie's complex story and message, the inappropriate content seems insignificant and in no way gratuitous. As such, it's a great movie for teens who are fed up with the average, cookie-cutter genre movies typically churned out of the Hollywood machine. It's also a movie whose twist ending wraps things up with a powerhouse, life-affirming message. This is really a movie for any type of cinema fan: it's simultaneously a drama, a sweeping romance, and a sci-fi thriller with occasional dashes of comedy. As he encounters two beautiful women (played with unforgettable pinache by Cameron Diaz and an endearing sweetness by Penelope Cruz) his life changes in a multitude of ways, and the film operates in lots of time jumps and twists that suck you into the story. I honestly think you'll enjoy the movie better if you don't know a lot about it, so I'll boil the plot down to this: David Aames (Tom Cruise) is your average wealthy American playboy who struggles with finding meaning in his life and living up to the expectations of his late father. I've now seen it three times and it's become my go-to "recommendation" movie for people looking to get lost in a movie. I watched the movie a couple months ago on a recommendation from a friend, knowing absolutely nothing about it, and was blown away by how involving, unique, and ultimately uplifting the movie was. Vanilla Sky is one of the biggest cinematic surprises I've ever come across.
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