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?"
PHOTO: UIP
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.
PHOTO: UIP
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.
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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