Vanilla Sky hit cinema screens SIXTEEN! (!) :O years ago. Bloody hell. It does not feel like that much time has passed. I went the cinema to see it and let me tell you it’s a beautifully weird movie. How best to describe it? It’s a hybrid. A rom-com. Don’t come at me because some of the film is romance driven and it’s funny in places. It’s also not shy of throwing a veil of darkness over the whole narrative and going a little sci-fi. How and why is best left for you the viewer to experience. So in this look back at the 2002 flick I shall not be revealing any twists or turns. The downside (or plus if you dislike my stuff haha) is this will probably be a short review.
Okay. The important stuff first. Tom Cruise plays David Aames. David is wealthy, has the best job, lives in NYC and basically has his pick of any woman in his field of vision. He’s a smooth operator and truth be told a bit of a self involved git. He means well and THINKS he treats people well but actually his actions and how he treats his ‘friends’ is pretty lousy. He’s not an awful person but he needs to work on some character flaws. There’s an ‘incident’ and Davey is forced to take a hard look at his life. I ain’t going no further with the plot except to say other stuff happens that will hopefully hit you over the head (in the best way) like it did to me when I first saw this movie.
Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous) directs. The film is a remake of a European movie which happens to star Penelope Cruz, who in a twist of fate, also stars in this remake! I don’t know if this is relavent or not but I haven’t seen the original. Not sure I want to either because I just like this film as is. An excellent tripple shot of Cameron Diaz, Kurt Russell and Jason Lee co-star in strong supporting roles but the film’s heart and drive very much comes from Cruz and Cruise!
The way Crowe directs is intersting. A lot of shots are extremely specific in the way they are staged and framed. The result is several stunningly beautiful shots in a film that overall looks equally beautiful and errie. The reasons behind those choices lean very much into spoiler town though so I don’t want to get into all of that. Once it all makes sense though (and believe me you’ll get it when it does ’cause the film hits you over the head with it!) you’ll hopefully be impressed. I shudder to think what the trailers would have been like for Vanilla Sky had it come out this decade. No doubt the reveals would have be documented blow by blow in the marketing before the film even hit screens.
The film’s soundtrack plays a vital role too. Crowe is know for having these amaze soundtracks for his movies and loves music. Almost Famous (which is boss) is a total love letter to music and probably Crowe’s most well known film to date. How music is used in Vanilla Sky is important and the facts it’s all ace is a bonus.
Yes this is a film that plays out like a puzzle. There are twists and turns but none of that stuff would matter if the story and the characters were flat. Thankfully that’s not the case. This is cool film and sort of like the anti rom-com or, no, an alternate rom-com is probably a better way to describe this movie. Check it out. It’s well worth it.
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