2001 / 135 Minutes / R
Reviewed by Jason Jones

I find it interesting that Cameron Crowe chose to start his mind-bending thriller “Vanilla Sky” with Tom Cruise awakening to the Radiohead song “Everything In It’s Right Place”. It seems to me that this is the subject at the heart of the film. When do we really know that everything is in it’s right place? Is it ever possible for everything to be in it’s right place? These questions may have never crossed your mind before, but they most certainly will weigh heavily on your thoughts after viewing this challenging masterpiece of a film.

Cruise is David Aames. The head of a publishing firm that he inherited from his father. For David, the publishing firm is more of a diversion than a real passion in his life. What he truly wants from life is true love, although he doesn’t mind sleeping with a friend (Cameron Diaz) to release his sexual frustrations while looking for Miss Right. Then one night David’s best friend (Jason Lee) brings a date (Penelope Cruz) to a party that he’s hosting. He is immediately intrigued by her and follows her around like a puppy dog for the entire evening. All the while falling in love with her. He eventually takes her home and spends all night talking to her. It appears all will be right as rain, as he walks to his car the next morning. It is at this moment that he makes a decision that will alter his life forever. It leads to a tragic car accident that leaves David disfigured and emotionally scarred. He attempts to overcome his misfortune, but will eventually find himself in jail on the charge of murder, discussing his life with Kurt Russell.

So how did he go from having the time of his life to a murder rap? That is the intellectual side of the coin that Cameron Crowe brilliantly unravels in his own unconventional yet admirably appropriate manner. The use of the device of the jail to tell the story in pseudo-retrospect, with Kurt Russell in the role of interrogator and captive audience, does a great deal for the story. It delivers many questions to the viewer that will slowly be answered as the film plays itself out while, at the same time, answering questions you didn’t even know you had. This becomes readily apparent upon multiple viewings.

There hasn’t been a film that played with one’s mind with such fervor and delight, since “Total Recall”. A film that shares a great deal with “Vanilla Sky”. The parallels are there for you to discover on your own if you choose to do so. The film never ever cheats the viewer. I was concerned about this going into my second viewing, but quickly realized that I had nothing to worry about. All of the clues are there to be found. You just have to look in the right places. The film is so masterfully done that it doesn’t allow the viewer to realize they are in for a journey of true awakening until it abandons it’s fairly linear story after the first hour and changes course into a mind-bending world of lost dreams and displacement of reality.

Tom is in top form in the role of David Aames. This may be the most challenging role he has ever had to tackle and he nails it. For the first time in his career, he is unable to rely on his looks to fill screen time. This is due to the aforementioned disfigurement, which is quite a site to endure. I’ve considered Tom to be a talented actor for years, but it seems that he is unable to shake the stigma of merely being a pretty face despite the many brilliant performances he has turned in. Here he runs the emotional gauntlet. He is playfully disturbed when singing a Joan Osborne song while riding on a gurney. He is charming while wearing a dopey looking hat and hanging out with Jason Lee. He is unrelentingly tormented while losing hope in the aftermath of the accident. He delivers on all counts and he is to be commended for this performance.

Amazingly enough, Penelope Cruz actually turns in a solid performance here. She doesn’t do anything groundbreaking, but she does add some subtle layers to a fairly one-dimensional role due to her being viewed through the eyes of David as a goddess. Cameron Diaz turns in a terrific role as the obsessive bed buddy of David’s. She tells us a great deal about her character’s intensions with very little screen time. It is the things she says that tells us that she truly means what she leaves unsaid. It is a brief, yet captivating performance that deserves every bit of critical acclaim it has received. Lastly, Kurt Russell turns in a poignant performance in his dealings with David. He acts as a surrogate father to David in these scenes. He wants to believe David and, most importantly, he makes the audience want to believe David as well. Why Kurt doesn’t get more work is beyond me. Although he was in “3000 Miles To Graceland” which did rule I might add.

Crowe and Cruise both took a big riskwith this movie. It’s not like we expect a mind-bender from the team that brought us “Jerry Maguire” which, by the way, is also an amazing film. It paid off in spades, however, as it ranks alongside the best work that either of them has done. I can only hope that they both choose to take more chances like this in the future.

The film has been faulted for having an ending that gives everything away at the end. This I don’t understand, since many of the people who say this admit that they don’t “get” the film. So I think it is more along the lines of finding fault for the sake of finding fault. I usually don’t care for movies that tie up the loose ends either, but in the case of “Vanilla Sky” the informative ending adds new layers to characters that otherwise would not have been realized and makes the film a completely captivating experience on all levels.

One can take many haunting images away from this film, but the one that stands out for me is at the very beginning. It is the Times Square scene that much has been made of. The streets are barren and David is running scared through the lifeless void at the heart of the Big Apple, which is typically it’s most lively. This is representative of David’s dilemma. Is there a discernible line between reality and disillusionment, or is everything truly in it’s right place?

That is the question at the heart of “Vanilla Sky” and a question that you will have to search your own heart and soul to find the answer to. For I do not have the answers. Although I can tell you that it does indeed piss on the ridiculously overrated “Mulholland Drive”.

That bit of nonsense can only be described as “Vanilla Sky” done wrong.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2001 at 2:11 pm and is filed under Jason's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.