Jeff's Reviews

Thoughts on every movie I've ever seen.

Vanilla Sky (2001)

Directed by Cameron Crowe

Starring Tom Cruise, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Kurt Russell

Author

A very thoughtful movie. I’m really starting to like Crowe.

A bit of a mindfuck, successfully keeping me off-balanced throughout. This movie could fit into the same category as Total Recall, What Dreams May Come, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Forgotten, The Others, and Flightplan, all featuring a paranoid examination of the universe around them and doubts about its reality.

Cruise is good. He’s funny when he’s deformed! The Mike Myers mask was a bit scary, but it’s not overdone and effectively forces Cruise to crank up his acting a notch when wearing it. Diaz is good at being a conniving bitch. Lee and Russell round things out nicely.

I’m surprised Cruise and Cruz had a relationship, as their chemistry is not apparent on-screen. Penelope seems a bit detached from Cruise and the movie as a whole, almost like she doesn’t care about her performance. In any case, the magic arrangement of her strange features make her beautiful, and her accent is the bomb.

The dreamy feel is sustained throughout. The Sigur Ros music helps. First-person angry fucking, featured in Election and again here, is always funny. Good ending.

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