Vanilla Sky (2001)
Note: Some spoilers.
After seeing "Vanilla Sky," anyone who still capitulates
to cinematic snootiness and accuses Tom Cruise of being
a pretty boy and a pampered star will look pretty foolish.
Cruise, gliding along with his new fave director Cameron
Crowe, goes for something really deep and unique and
interesting here. The two succeed admirable.
Cruise plays Davis Aames, a pretty boy turned wealthy
young adult (remember when 30 was middle aged?) who
can't seem to separate his dreams from reality. He has
the male dream relationship in a fuck-buddy set-up with
Cameron Diaz. She's really, really hot here. I'd do
her and I'm Gay! She makes some really bold choices
here and really goes for something truly unique and
different. She has a outright crude line or two but
her tough girl persona hides a deeper problematic character
waiting in the wings to emerge. And, when one views
the film for the second time, understanding some of
her understated nuances in character and choices, they'll
realize just how awesome Diaz's acting is.
Of course, the exact same can be said of Penelope
Cruz, who plays Cruise (Tom's) "dream girl" here. As
Sofia, Cruz (Penelope) reprises her role from the original
1997 Spanish language film on which this film is based.
That film is called (when translated to English) "Open
Your Eyes" and the phrase repeats here to remind us
that David (and therefore we) are not sure whether we
are in dream or reality.
Crowe's film work is beautiful. Every frame of
this film is gorgeous. Even when Cruise is made up in
prosthetics to look hideously deformed the film seems
lustrous. Crowe steps decidedly out of the box he has
seemingly put himself in (jovial marketable films) and
emerges as a cinematic force to be reckoned with. Joining
Soderberg, the Andersons (P.T. and Wes) and the Coen
Brothers (among others) as prolific masters who make
interesting and unique, yet bankable, blockbuster FILMS.
But it is Cruise's work here that is the most glaringly
daring and truly visionary. Cruise bought the rights
to this film presumably knowing it would be a starring
vehicle for himself. Cruise knows, going into the film,
that he will get to play a man who goes from attractive
to deformed. It's an integral part of the plot. And
Crowe and Cruise play it off magnificently. Cruise may
use "make-up" to create a character but make no doubt
about it, like John Hurt in "Elephant
Man," Cruise acts around and on top of the make-up,
creating a stunning and revolutionary character that
has as much to do with acting as it does special effects.
Cruise proves himself, if there was ever any doubt,
a truly brilliant actor here.
Cruise's character's evolution, beginning here
riffing off of his pretty boy persona and then emerging
as the Deformed Man, is paramount to the theme because
this film isn't really about dream vs. reality; it's
about perception. As audience, we love to look at Cruise.
I don't care if you're gay, straight, bi, or into sheep,
everyone knows that Cruise is hot and aesthetically
pleasing. When Cruise's character, David, becomes deformed,
his face scarred and his flesh drooping, Cruise looks
awful. It is painful to watch. Crowe films him perfectly.
Notice the exactly correct close-ups and medium shots.
With the change of David's face also comes change in
disposition and here the film suggests that it isn't
just physical characteristics that are the basis of
attractiveness but also how we carry those characteristics.
Cruise's David hates himself as ugly and deformed and
that anger, bitterness and hurt comes out as profound
ugliness in the actor's hands. It's a fantastic performance
from Cruise, perhaps the best he has ever given.
Cruz (Penelope), meanwhile, helps also to convey
this idea and theme with her reactions to Cruise (Tom)
as deformed ugliness. She reacts like we do. We want
to love Tom Cruise. We know it is the same guy under
the ugly face that used to make us hot as fuck. It's
Joel from "Risky Business" and "Jerry Maguire" under
all that drooping flesh. If looks truly don't matter,
then why are we so repulsed and unable to love him as
Deformed Man?
This is the crux of the entire film. Cruise is
such a modern cinematic equivalent of profound lust
that his sexuality is often called into question by
everyone who has ever gotten wet from seeing his face.
To see him suddenly become ugly; it is almost unfathomable.
It calls into question all of our human notions about
looks, personality, sexuality and eroticism. It is a
mind-fuck performed by one prosthetic mask glued to
the face of America's most fuckable male star. It is
devastating. It makes us ashamed of our own feelings
and our own inability to be attracted to Deformed Man,
which we know is the same Tom Cruise that we've always
wanted to fuck.
To compound this confused sexuality of the viewer,
Cruise as David often, after his deformity, appears
in a pure, smooth, gelatinous mask made (as explained
in plot) to help him cope with his deformity. Cruise,
as Deformed Man (in Mask), confuses our libidos yet
again with this smooth skinned angel face. He looks
like a hot teenage boy in some sort of psychedelic,
alternative-reality, Wiley Wiggins mask. Again, could
we fuck Deformed Man if we knew he used to look like
Cruise and he was wearing a Wiley Wiggins mask? Crowe
and Cruise use this mask extensively in the film to
continually discuss not only our own inability to cope
with the ugliness within ourselves but to question our
acceptance of those different physically from us. As
Wiley the smooth skinned, generic, hottie, boy wonder,
Cruise again changes not only appearance but personality
as well and now becomes Troubled Son. We only want to
comfort him, stroke his smooth, gelatinous cheek and
tell him it will all be all right.
Crowe and Cruise have much help with exploring
all of these things involving physicality. They also
discuss the attractiveness of power, wealth and material
things. Help in this matter is unwaveringly supplied
by Diaz and Cruz (Penelope). But many other actors appear
in the film and each and every one of them give performances
that are the best of their career. Jason Lee, Kurt Russell,
Noah Taylor, Tilda Swinton, and Timothy Spall (okay
- he had more of a character in "Secrets and Lies")
all work wonders here in the (not so) periphery. This
is simply a film where everything clicks. Everything
is in its right place.
Even Crowe's audio landscape is impeccable. Crow
revives the lost new wave classic "Doot Doot" by Fruer
to consecrate it as the penultimate in neo-modern-futuristic
elevator music. but that isn't enough; he goes on to
mix a plethora of cool tunes in the score and then commingles
them in the film's climatic moment to be an amalgam
of pop culture sounds that coagulate into a cacophony
of mind-splitting, mind-bending, mind-breaking, mind-fucking
sound, a pinnacle of sound, that represents nothing
less than the fabric of reality being torn asunder.
Tunes like The Five American's "Western Union," and
Joan Osborne's "What if God Was One of Us" churn into
the collective pop culture beehive of David's brain
causing a brilliant short circuit of reality only to
segue into the mind-freeing breath of realization that
is Todd Rundgren's classic "Can We Still Be Friends."
It is some of the best usage of pop music in film in
a year that has been infused with great film music montages,
from "Moulin Rouge" to "Hedwig and the Angry Inch."
And more importantly, like those films, the music here
is particular to the film's plot. It MEANS something.
The pop culture clutter of David' brain means something.
Music is integral here. And you know Crowe is on the
right track when he begins the film with Radiohead's
recent avant-garde classic from the "Kid A" experiment,
"Everything in Its Right Place." Indeed it is.
"Vanilla Sky" is a truly masterful film. I was
only disappointed with the fact that the film's brilliant
conclusion actually served to wrap up the film a bit
to well. But reflection on the piece, which leads me
to want to see it again, has made me realize that it
is one of the most interesting and singularly unique
films to be made this year. A film that, with "Almost
Famous" and "Jerry Maguire," surely cements Cameron
Crowe in the pantheon of modern filmmaking masters.
Note:
Also with Alicia Witt. Johnny Galecki (of Roseanne)
must have been cut out of the film. He appears almost
as a featured extra here with no lines in a party scene.
Steven Spielberg, Tara Lipinski, and Patrick McMullin
all have cameos. The Conan O'Brien show is used to serve
the plot in what may be a faked clip.
Crowe wrote the screenplay based on the Spanish
film which Cruise, as producer here, purchased the rights
to in 1999.
Music by Mrs. Crowe, Nancy Wilson (of Heart). Cinematography
by John Toll.
Soundtrack also includes songs by Looper, Chemical
Brothers, Bob Dylan, Red House Painters, and Peter Gabriel
among others.
Cruise, as David, actually gets to deliver the
line (referring to sexuality), "I'm straight," in the
film.
On the DVD for "Almost
Famous," Crowe mentions that one of the titles first
considered for that film was... "Vanilla Sky."
More
of Lodger's reviews indexed alphabetically! Just click
your favorite letter to go there.
a
b c
d e
f g
h i
j k
l m
n o
p q
r s
t u
v w
x y
z
HOME
|
