Movie Review: Vanilla Sky

Now this is the American version of the original Spanish movie "Open Your Eyes" (Spanish: Abre los ojos), which I already reviewed yesterday.

And while these two movies are similar - even very similar, to the point of being identical at times - there are differences, as well. This American version has a very different feel to it, as well. 

It was on Amazon Prime that I saw a description of this movie as a successful young American millionaire (or possibly billionaire) and manchild playboy David Aames, finds the perfect woman who changes everything for him. That woman, Sofia Serrano (played by Penélope Cruz in both Abre los ojos and this American version) allows him to finally grow up, in other words.

While that definitely is at least a part of the story, there is much more to this movie. So much more, in fact, that you would never imagine, much less guess, what else this movie has or even is about. Because that description makes it sound like a typical romance movie, which this most certainly is not. In fact, let me just say this, before moving on to the standard spoiler warning before actually describing these movies: this movie really freaked me out. I have seen horror movies which scared me a bit while watching it, but which did not creep me out or haunt me like this movie did. No, it is not a horror film, yet it has certain (albeit brief) aspects which play out almost as horror, even though that was far more prevalent in this American version than it was in the original Spanish one. 

Now of course, as usual, I have to give the standard warning before going on, because in describing this movie at all (especially given that misleading description on Amazon Prime), it is almost impossible to discuss this particular movie without spoilers. Yes, there will be spoilers ahead. So if you have not yet seen this movie (or the original Spanish version), and do not want the story spoiled ahead of your first viewing, then please stop reading here. 

*****Spoiler Warning*****

*****Spoiler Warning*****

*****Spoiler Warning*****

Okay, so if you are still reading at this point, I have to imagine it is because for some reason, you either do not mind spoilers, or you are already familiar with the story already. One way or the other, it's time to get a bit more into the details of this movie. Here goes:

As mentioned earlier, this is not a horror movie. Still in truth, it gave me the creeps more than most horror movies which I have seen. Some of the ideas of the story are worked out to great effect in this movie, which was directed by Cameron Crowe. Since I saw this particular movie long before I ever saw the Spanish one, it was this version which introduced me to the story. I had watched it once or twice around the time that it was first released, and then did not watch it again for another twenty years or so. Then, I watched it again in 2022, knowing a bit more what to expect. Yet somehow, if anything, it hit me harder on this viewing. Perhaps it was because I was significantly older. Not sure why, but it really did have more of an impact.

Now, I mentioned that this movie kind of freaked me out in certain ways. Part of it is that it it meant to throw you off, quite deliberately. In this regard, it as some similarities to another movie which is otherwise very different, 12 Monkeys. Both movies seem at times to be about something else entirely, but the full extent of the story is revealed to you only later on, after you have seen it. Like 12 Monkeys, or perhaps also like the Sixth Sense, you feel that you have a much netter grasp of what is actually going on after you have watched this movie in it's entirety, and then watch it again, knowing during the second viewing what you did not know on the first viewing.

When I read the inadequate and frankly misleading description on Amazon Prime, I felt surprised and, frankly, annoyed. That would be like....I don't know. Maybe suggesting that the Incredible Hulk is a story about a man who merely has anger issues, and struggles to control it. A description like that just does not do this justice. Of course, it would be difficult to describe this movie adequately in just a few sentences, but it probably would have to suggest that a successful and spoiled (and blind - there is a reason why the phrase "Open Your Eyes", which is what the original title in Spanish translates to, is so prominent in both versions) playboy survives a horrific accident (actually, a suicide attempt by a woman he has taken for granted and mistreated), but it leaves him disfigured. Suddenly, he goes from a pretty boy to a physical appearance after the accident which makes him feel like he is a monster. The accident happens literally just after a seemingly perfect night where he feels like he fell in love with Sofia. Despite it only being the one night, he seems sure that Sofia really might be "the one." Yet when his former love interest Julie Gianni, a woman whom he has only taken advantage of (and who is described by a friend and, just before her suicide attempt, by Gianni herself, as a ""fuck buddy"), but who has developed far more serious feelings towards him. In fact, she reveals that she loves him, just before killing herself, with him in the car. 

After this, David's life is changed dramatically. Whereas before, he seemed to be very happy and quite taken by his success and his looks, and where he "parties" pretty much all of the time, he now becomes a recluse, closing himself off to and from the outside world. Yet, he has fallen for Sofia, and begins to...well frankly, to engage in behavior that would suggest stalking. Eventually, he works up the courage to meet her, but she clearly does not like the person he has become. It might not just be a rejection of his physical appearance, but also, of the more self-pitying version of himself that he has transformed into. 

One way or the other, he feels the weight of her rejection, to say the least. The life he has known before, in which he took almost everything for granted, is gone, taken violently away from him in an instant. He becomes a loner, and there are times when he clearly feels sorry for himself (understandably, at least to some extent). Suddenly, he begins to have dark thoughts, and contemplates suicide.

Yet this is also not the full story. Because he and Sofia do suddenly get together, quite unexpectedly. In fact, it is at this point when the movie seems to greatly change directions. His old happiness is back, as apparently is his old winning streak. The doctors could do little to nothing to improve his physical appearance, but sudden breakthroughs in medicine and technology allow him to get back to his earlier, attractive physical appearance. It seems that he has everything he once had, except that now, he has a bit more of an ability to appreciate it, and not simply taken for granted. In other words, he has opened his eyes, if you will, far more than he ever had before the accident. 

Still, there are some things wrong. Or rather, perhaps not quite right would be a better way of putting it. Because while on the surface, things seem fine, better than ever, even, he starts to suspect that there is something not quite to be trusted in his reacquaintance with success. The board of his company seems to want to remove him, and he feels the weight of what appears to be a real conspiracy against him. Also, he keeps seeing the disfigured face that he had after the accident breaking through the "mask" of his repaired face. Also, there are "glimpses" of Julie Gianni when he is with Sofia. In short, David can no longer tell truth from fiction. This culminates in a breaking point, when he instinctively kills Julie, getting revenge for both his accident (her suicide attempt) as well as haunting him long after she is dead. Then he is held in police custody, about to be charged with murder, when he gets a relationship with a father figure of a psychologist, who is trying to get to the root of David's story. 

You might not think that Cameron Diaz could pull off being a woman who is not taken seriously by a guy. After all, she is astonishingly beautiful and sexy. Yet, not only does she pull it off, indeed looking much like the "saddest girl to ever hold a martini," as her character is described at some point, but also she feels like a downright scary presence, haunting David after his recovery from the accident. She feels a lot scarier than the woman who played the overlooked sex object in the original Spanish movie, and the raw emotions, the desperation and anger in her suicide scene feels sincere and real, even if it more animated, than in the original Spanish version.

The physical implications and complications after the accident feel more real in this one. The girl dies in both versions of the movie, because i is a successful suicide attempt. But in this one, Dave's injuries and limitations feel more real. In the Spanish version, it seems like the only thing which Cesar suffered after the accident in the Spanish version was that his face was ripped apart, which is perhaps bad enough. But in Vanilla Sky, it feels more realistic. Yes, David's face is significantly altered, but it also affects him in numerous other ways. His arm is screwed up, and he has a very noticeable limp. They show his movements at times, and to his credit, Tom Cruise was very convincing in illustrating the physical pain that his character is enduring with deliberately slow, careful movements which betray his physical discomfort. Cruise did the same thing in Valkyrie early in the movie, showing the toll of the war injuries on Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. That really makes a difference in this movie, because it further reinforces just how bad  the accident he survived was. By contrast, I could not help but get distracted by the seeming lack of any other injuries of physical toll that Cesar had, other than his disfigured face, in the Spanish version. So in that regard, I appreciated that aspect in Vanilla Sky more, truth be told. It made it more believable.

Ultimately, we find out that much of this story is a dream inside of David's head. We learn that he has become fascinated with a shady agency promising a sort of life after death. This was the part that is also a bit confusing, because it is never clear if David has died - as it is claimed numerous times during the movie - and if this process of freezing people and bringing them back to life (like Walt Disney) is real, or some kind of crazy, half-baked notion and a selling point from an organization bent on making money by scamming people. 

Did David get frozen for 150 years, and is he actually about to wake up and open his eyes to a life in the future? Or is he dreaming all of this, too, and perhaps he has just survived a near-death experience? Is his life flashing before his eyes, or has he indeed had something of an actual life - albeit in a dreamlike state - that has lasted years and years following what passed for his death?

A lot of unanswered questions. The madness that he at least flirts with in both movies is disturbing. And  his inability to distinguish dream from reality is disturbing. You really don't know what is going on, what part is real, and what part is in his head. Once Sofia and Julie begin to seemingly switch identities, the movie itself begins to at least border on disturbing. You feel the confusion, the uncertainty, the inability to trust your conventional mode of thinking.

To me, a movie that can do that is worth watching. And this one definitely is. Yes, it is disturbing and uncomfortable. In the end, however, it asks you important questions and tries to get you to "open your eyes" and appreciate all that life has given you and/or can provide, while the opportunity is there for you to do so, because much like David in this movie, you might only value that when it's too late, once it's take away from you.

Highly recommended!