Vanilla Sky (For more reviews: http://www.iscriptdb.com)
Starring: Tom Cruise, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Jason Lee, Kurt Russell Directed by: Cameron Crowe Written by: Alejandro Amenábar, Cameron Crowe, Mateo Gil Distributor: Paramount Pictures Release year: 2001
Score: 6 out of 10
What happens when all you've got in the world is a pretty face and they take it away from you?
Tom Cruise plays New York City publisher David Aames, who appears to have everything a man could ask for: the pretty face, wealth beyond imagination, power, and a personality that just oozes charisma. Women love him and men admire him. But to go along with it, he is a womanizer and a man of shallow character-which will be his downfall. One night, while not inviting his current girlfriend to his birthday party, David falls for Sofia (Penelope Cruz), the girl of his dreams. By the next day his life is thrust into complete chaos when his ex-girlfriend (Cameron Diaz), raging with jealousy, drives her car with David in it off a bridge plummeting to the street below. David is maimed as his face and arm is shattered. His ex-girlfriend dies. His world is turned upside down and what is reality and what is fantasy is blurred in a twisted and fragmented spectacle of self-revelation. A mind-altering state of denial and mystery surround's David as he tries to discover his own self worth while battling fits of illusion and suspicion.
Former rock journalist turned screenwriter and director Cameron Crowe has created an illusion. Vanilla Sky begins with an uproar, but ends in complete silence. The movie bordered on brilliance at times for the first two acts. Like a flower waiting to bloom I was completely captivated waiting for the blossom, only to find a weeping willow inside.
In the end, as we are told bit-by-bit what it was we were watching, the brilliance of the beam faded. The third act was all talk, which means the narrative hadn't been fully dramatized, and it wasn't. A `talky' ending means the writer and director hadn't done enough to tell the story.
All in all, I think the real Cameron Crowe is revealed. A filmmaker who at times shows moments of brilliance, but is not able to sustain it for an entire film. Almost Famous was just that, almost… so too here is his effort with Vanilla Sky, a rather `vanilla' film with `almost' potential.
-- The Spectator
In June of 1908, on the very last page of The New York Dramatic Mirror, Frank "The Spectator" Woods became this countries first "movie critic." In honor of his work, and the many others who have followed, we name this column.
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