Near the start of the film, Aames' best friend Brian, warns Aames that "life is bitter and sweet. And believe me, I've tasted the bitter." Then we have a brain technician from the future telling Aames that "sometimes your senses of guilt in the unconscious can turn a sweet dream into a nightmare." Toward the end we have Cruise crying out, "I wanna wake up." There is just too much message and it is applied with a trowel.
To work, the audience should be able to sympathize with the pain of the protagonist, to enter his world. Vanilla Sky is equally disappointing in this respect. Cruise, with his all-stretched-out acting, makes the film a one-man show, and there is little room for sympathy.
Even Penelope Cruz, who starred in the Spanish version, is much inferior in the same role. In Vanilla Sky, she is just a sweet, exotic girl that makes Aames feel special. She has less screen time in Vanilla Sky, and her role may have been diminished by difficulty in delivering some of the glib dialogue.
We don't see Sofia confront David after the crash, nor what her feelings are and how she gives David pain, so, of course, the audience may feel less involved and easily lose its way in the emotional chaos.
All of this confusion might be a result of Cruise's and Crowe's desire to pay homage to a film they really admire. Unfortunately, the two get too involved in making a remake, and lack the coolness and distance to feel the intrigue of the film. Then again, if Crowe was managing to maintain coolness and distance, he might think of doing an original rather than making a remake.
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