Spaniards prove spicier than bland `Vanilla'

Abre Los Ojos is the film that Tom Cruise appreciated so much that he remade it into Vanilla Sky, which is still showing in Taiwan's cinemas. So this is a good chance to compare the remake with the 1997 original by young Spanish talent Alejandro Amenabar.

The film has several flaws, mostly in its long and loose narrative. But the story and the atmosphere are impressive in that they are intriguing and unconventional.

Cesar (Eduardo Noriega) is a young man who has it all. He is handsome interesting and rich, a lady killer. He meets Sofia (Penelope Cruz) at his 25th birthday party. The chemistry between the two is tangible, but things change when he steps in ex-girlfriend Nuria's car, after leaving Sofia's apartment. Nuria pops a few pills and deliberately smashes the car into a concrete wall.

Reality and fantasy become undistinguishable after that. Cesar finds himself in an asylum, his face disfigured from the wreck, and he's being questioned about a murder he cannot remember. What happened to his face? Did Sofia finally accept him after the horrible accident? How come Sofia's face always looks like Nuria's?

The story plays tricks on the leading man as well as the audience. After Cesar is transformed from being gorgeous to being a monster we feel sympathy for him and hope that his suffering will make him cherish life more. But the film does not stay there, but moves on to seek a sci-fi solution for Cesar's predicament -- a journey that jumps ahead 100 years to a time when you can literally live in your dreams as if they were reality. But sometimes something goes wrong with your consciousness, or there is a technical problem in the dream, and it all turns into a nightmare -- just like what happens to Cesar.

Compared with Vanilla Sky, Abre Los Ojos has a more gripping narrative and the actors are more convincing. Sofia has more encounters with the disfigured Cesar. She is frightened, sad and disappointed with him and even ends up in his best friend's arms. This is somehow missing in the remake. As a result Penelope Cruz has a better showing here, given more screen time and the fact that she's working in Spanish, her native language.

At the end of the film Amenabar plays even more game with his audience and the story becomes even more tangled.