Film

Underrated Masterpieces: Eyes Wide Shut

Stanley Kubrick’s finale was expected to be an explosion of genius that was finally understood by contemporary society. Instead, Eyes Wide Shut, starring then married couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, was his coldest and most ambiguous movie that alienated a large portion of the audience and critics were almost as cold as the movie itself. But Kubrick movies always struggled for recognition upon initial release – A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and 2001: A Space Odyssey were all shunned initially but have grown to be considered masterpieces upon re-evaluation. The same can be said of Eyes Wide Shut.

The movie is an erotic daydream told with a clinical ruthlessness from a distance, but yet it is raw and intimate and features two incredibly subtle and pyschological performances from Cruise and Kidman. One of the great things Kubrick does in the picture is create a permanently unsettling aura that makes us eternally intrigued by this couple and their tussle with lust, jealousy and seduction.

After Kidman’s Alice tells her husband Bill she very nearly had an affair his mind descends into despair as he is haunted by images of his wife and a naval officer having sex. Sexuality surrounds Cruise’s doctor and each person he engages comes with some sort of sexual subtext. Kubrick gets one of Cruise’s greatest performances out of him. As the cold, unsettling and understated doctor, he delivers a superior performance that towers above his turns in Jerry Maguire, Minority Report, Collateral, Risky Business and The Color of Money and is only inferior to his role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterpiece, Magnolia, where he plays a misogynist self-help speaker.

Above all else, Eyes Wide Shut is an intimate and intense character study and exploration of the human mind through sexuality and Kubrick’s visceral style is perfect for expressing human emotion through subtlety. Not many three hour films could be called understated or subtle, but that’s exactly what Eyes Wide Shut is. It’s a patient movie that follows its characters without being heavy handed and strangely for an erotic drama of this length, there is very little explicit sex.

Like all Kubrick movies there is a delicate attention to detail with the utmost focus put into the tiniest of arrangements. Everything about Eyes Wide Shut is careful, precise and deliberate and regardless of what some people say, it is headed by a director still showcasing his almighty power. Kubrick makes unique use of lighting and the pallet of colours that feature in the film make it an illuminating experience that heightens the surrealism of the picture. Adding to that is Kubrick’s decision to have the background as Christmas which creates a garish juxtaposition and furthers the coldness of the atmosphere.

The film takes an odyssey into sexuality that climaxes in the famous scenes of masked orgy. The scenes of group sex are built like a horror movie. The colours are vivid and the Venetian masks are legitimately unsettling especially when Kubrick shoots from a distance. It is crafted to perfection and the masked scenes of sexuality at the mansion are a masterclass in unease and tension.

It is easy to forget that Eyes Wide Shut is set over a very short period of time as you become entranced in Bill’s increasingly disturbing journey and whilst the film is too long for some, it adds to the overhwhelming sense of paranoia that penetrates the movie as the running time allows things to build and develop accordingly. It may not be as groundbreaking as 2001 or as striking as A Clockwork Orange but Eyes Wide Shut is a sinister, illusive, vivid masterpiece that is elevated by male vulnerability, pain and most of all, a sense of humanity that sometimes escapes Kubrick’s films.

Click to comment
To Top