 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
. |
Vanilla
Sky
(2001) |
||||||||
|
. |
Tom Cruise plays David
Aames, a smarmy, rather full-of-himself git of a man who happens
to have everything in life going for him in a big way. The most
gorgeous women in town are mesmerized by him, success and immense
wealth are merely mundane facts of life…this man has everything
from great looks to a great pad and a life that mere mortals
can only dream about, and that too only fleetingly. However
in movies, bliss is akin to the lull before the storm and indeed
it doesn't take long for a nasty one to develop in Cruise's
life as the attention of one particular beauty starts to take
its toll. Meanwhile Cruise begins to fall desperately in love with a doe eyed dancing girl from, how you say een Eengleesh….Eth-pana who simply enchants him with her Hispanic charm but problems arise when ex-sleeping partner Cameron Diaz starts to behave as if she is auditioning for Fatal Attraction 2 and drives herself and Cruise to a horrible accident in which she is killed and he is badly disfigured. Cruise's life and face is shattered as he is rendered a mass of scars and lumps and forced to wear a latex mask to hide behind. At the same time he is arrested and hauled up for murder which all but ruins him. However we are shown that he is able to receive treatment and rebuild his relationship with Penelope Cruz - could it be that there is a life for Cruise even after the trauma of having been stalked by the crazed Diaz and having lost his lady love? Could there be redemption yet from the brutal scarring he received from the accident? Could he find some substance to his shallow existence through the suffering he has undergone? So many moral dilemmas and so many issues to confront - jealousy, possession, sex, love, life, plastic surgery. We shan't even begin to breathe a word as to what actually transpires as the plot is laden with numerous twists that will have you either marvelling in admiration of the new-age ingenuity of the stimulating plot or then cringing every two minutes as the horrors of pretentiousness mount to unbearable levels. Unfortunately we found ourselves to be firmly in the latter category. Vanilla Sky was an excruciating experience. The best part of a film bloated with pretentious hot air is the performance of Cameron Diaz who sparkles albeit in an unfortunately brief role. Tom Cruise is at his worst - self conscious and posturing, yet it is Ms. Cruz who steals the show with her ghastly performance as the Hispanic waif. Let's just say she, how you say in eengleesh, makes Sophia Loren seem like a masterly performer. The real villain is director Cameron Crowe who brings his brand of teen-age-scrap-book-style film making which was so appropriate for Almost Famous to a subject matter which needed a totally different approach. The intrusion of pop songs from Crowe's own nostalgia every two minutes is jarring to the extreme and undercuts even the half wit attempts at profoundness. In fact what was touted
to be a deeply intellectual and thought provoking experience
turns out to be utterly shallow, very pretentious and ultimately
very stupid indeed. Either one of the most cringe-inducing film
experiences in recent memory or then we were just too stupid
to get it.
|
||||||||
