Eyes Wide Shut
d. Stanley Kubrick, 1999
With just one viewing, I'm not really sure if I completely understand the film. But i'll try my best to make my interpretation of Eyes Wide Shut as clear as possible. Above all, the film is an exploration about the difficulties of maintaining a serious relationship (marriage). These issues, the film suggests, arise from problems people have when it comes to balancing both carnal desires and a longing for something deeper: an emotional companion. It's important to point out that the audience recognizes these elements during the opening sequences, and Eyes Wide Shut is not about providing that message, but about analyzing it.
At the beginning of the film, Dr. Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) and his wife, Alice, (Nicole Kidman) are getting ready to go a Christmas party. Once there, they are each lured away from their partners into the hands of other people. Bill by two models who want to take hm to a more "private" place and Alice by a doctor who hits on her as they dance. The movie also introduces the host of the party, Victor, (Sidney Pollack) when he calls Bill up to his room (and away from the models) because a hooker has overdosed in his bathroom.
Bill and Alice go back home and discuss the party at length (while high on pot), this extended shot of their conversation is probably one of my favorite scenes in the film. They each question each other about the party, Bill about the guy Alice was dancing with and she about the two girls. She also begins questioning Bill's fidelity and his perception of her (he is sure his wife would not be unfaithful to him). Alice describes a fantasy she had about a young naval officer and this vision appears in Bill's mind throughout the film.
At the end of that conversation, Eyes Wide Shut follows Bill through the streets of New York as he keeps thinking about what has happened. One of the on-going "jokes" of the film is the way everyone in the film seems to react sexually to Bill. And his walk eventually leads him (with several episodes prior) to a strange party that he is warned to be dangerous by one of its own participants. He leaves the party, goes back home and still has visions of his wife's dream.
Bill spends the next day trying to make sense of the events of that night. Although the adventures of that night take up a lot of the film's running time, I don't think his journey should be taken in a literal way. Kubrick insists on this by introducing one of Alice's dreams into the film. That dream is not nearly as evident as the "real" adventure of Bill's, but, within the subject of the film, is just as important.
There are some more plot twists here and there, but the film serves mostly as an exploration of the themes described above. Kubrick's last film is one of his best and it works as a poignant observation on adult relationships. Few films about the subject are as psychologically complex and even less are willing to discuss the emotions that serve as the basis for Eyes Wide Shut.
