Emotional and narrative chaos reigns in 'Vanilla Sky'

If the Spanish original Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) directed by Alejandro Amenabar is labeled a thriller, then Cameron Crowe's Hollywood remake, under the title Vanilla Sky, is definitely something less than a thriller. It is more like a morality play -- vanity and casual sex are definitely not cool -- hoisted onto a structure that might be a thriller, but which is anything but thrilling.

The original story, written by Amenabar and Mateo Gil, has a complex blend of sci-fi quality, romance, drama and mystery which are far more appropriate to a thriller. As frustrated and confused as the viewer may feel when viewing the Spanish original, at least the film has enough substance to keep you asking: "What really happened to the handsome protagonist?"

Watching this US remake you hardly bother asking. It is easy to get lost in the talky, self-conscious dialogue and forget about the mystery altogether.

Tom Cruise, also the producer of the film, plays the protagonist David Aames, a rich, handsome, fun-loving New Yorker who is the heir of a publishing conglomerate. He likes driving his black Porsche around the city and is a little too intensely aware of his good looks. Julie Gianni (Cameron Diaz), a foxy blonde model, is just one of his ladies, and for Aames, it is just about sex. But Gianni wants Aames to "open his eyes," a chant with which the film starts and a indication of what is to come.

One day, at Aames's birthday party, he meets the girl of his dreams -- Sofia Serranno (Penelope Cruz), brought by his best friend Brian Shelby (Jason Lee). Despite the unconvincing love-at-first-sight scene, lots of gabby flirting that doesn't mean anything, we are obviously meant to believe that Aames has finally found love.

From that point on, the story becomes a roller coaster ride that takes us through a devastating car crash brought about by the jealous Cruz, who plays a kind of avenging angle. Aames then inexplicably ends up in a prison cell talking to a court-appointed psychiatrist (Kurt Russell). He is wearing a latex mask. He is depressed and powerless, for he was accused of murdering Sofia, but he has no recollection of the how or why. And then Sophia keeps on morphing into Julie Gianni, the jealous-woman-turned-psycho.

Scene to scene, the narrative of Vanilla Sky is faithful to the original film. It also has the higher production values made possible by Hollywood budgets and a degree of realism in such scenes as the car crash that the Spanish original had no hope of emulating.

Cameron Crowe, director of Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous, two films notable for the humanity of their presentation, finds his talent for realistic and intelligent dialogue forming a poor fit with the style of Vanilla Sky. Here the film simply becomes dialogue heavy.

He has inserted his own signature with the choice of background music and pop culture references through the use of Bob Dylan, REM, Radiohead and the Chemical Brothers, which help make the film bustle, but are no substitute for narrative tension.

One of the main themes of the story is about male vanity, particularly one's physical appearance and self image. It is intriguing that the story later spins into a science fiction sphere and intrudes into the world of the unconscious. But Crowe ends up adding too much extraneous information and the whole thing becomes boringly predictable.