Day 14 Vanilla
Sky [2001]
Screenplay Cameron Crowe
Based
on ‘Abre los Ojos’
by Alejandro AmenĂ¡bar & Mateo Gil
Director Cameron Crowe
Cinematography John Toll
Music
Composition Nancy Wilson
Leads Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz,
Tilda Swinton, Kurt Russell, Noah Taylor, Timothy Spall, Michael Shannon.
Production Cruise/Wagner Productions,
Vinyl Films, Summit Entertainment
IMDb 6.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes 42%
Another Tom Cruise and Cameron Crowe combination. I haven’t seen Jerry Maguire surprisingly so I will add it to my list and compare it to this one. Shame I didn’t watch them chronologically. I also understand it is based on a film called Abre Los Ojos with Penelope Cruz. I quite liked it. It fucked with my head and pissed me off in equal measure. I got very confused at one point and by the end I didn’t know what the fuck was going on. I way preferred the first half of the film, once they brought in all the lucid dream, cryogenic bullshit I gave up. They could have linked it in slightly better I think. The film started so strongly with the Radiohead song and Cruise’s dream where he is all alone. I’ll quickly admit it’s not the most taxing film in terms of the acting and writing, but there was something about it that kept me watching. It may be because the Tom Cruise I know was based solely on Top Gun, Mission Impossible, War of the Worlds and his incredible Les Grossman character in Tropic Thunder, I had forgotten about the better version of Cruise in Magnolia, and recently Risky Business. In this his acting and his character are very erratic. One moment he was the annoying, jumping on the sofa Cruise, the next I was right back with him willing him to get Sophia (Cruz) back. Diaz and Cruz are good in this. The rest are ok. I finished the film not really sure whether I enjoyed it or not. Do not get high and watch this film.
Acting 3 / 4
Writing 2 / 4
Cinematography 3 / 4
Music 3 / 4
HWF rating 2.5 / 4