Vanilla Sky Movie Review ..

David Aames (Tom Cruise) is living the life of the young, rich and famous, having inherited his father’s flourishing business. David is a magazine publisher in name only however, because the rest of the board of partners who share the company want the freeloading boss’s son out of the way and David can’t find the time between sexual flings and squash games to notice.

It’s only when David meets Sofia (Penelope Cruz) that he becomes fixated on something real, even if it’s just one night of intellectual bonding with a young woman his best friend brought to David’s birthday party. David believes that he’s falling in love, but in his haste he forgets Julie Gianni (Cameron Diaz) who believes exactly the same about her and David. His perfect life finally sprouts cracks when Julie sees him favoring Sofia and loses her temper, driving her car off a bridge with him in it.

While Julie dies from the horrific crash, David is left with a horribly scarred face and arm, which he takes to covering with a plastic mask. Left without his good looks, David begins to realize that a large portion of his life relied on very shallow and vain things and finally begins to take control of his company. Unlike how the story would probably play out in real life, the hero of Vanilla Sky miraculously turns out to be a very competent leader once the distractions of women and the fast life are out of his way, but an attempt at reconciling with Sofia doesn’t go the way he hopes.

Vanilla Sky is interspersed with odd dream sequences that permeate David’s life, hinting that all isn’t right in his perfect world. While the conscious mind might not recognize inconsistencies instantly, the subconscious picks up on it, and the visual nods to recognizable images throughout the cinematography leave you with an uneasy sense that there’s something wrong. One of the most startling and visually effective sequences is actually one of the first, when Tom Cruise walks through a completely deserted Times Square in New York, spookily dead quiet and unnatural. This was achieved by giving the crew of Vanilla Sky permission to close Times Square for a Sunday morning, which probably served to annoy most of the city of New York but made for a stunning scene.

These were the days where Tom Cruise was known for his floppy hair and puppy dog eyes more than his unusual religious views, and he’s in his element in Vanilla Sky. Naturally he pulls off David’s dream lifestyle, effortless cool and penchant for fast women easily enough, but he’s also good as the mutilated, darker side of David’s personality after the accident. Penelope Cruz starred as Sofia in Abre Los Ojos or Open Your Eyes, the 1997 Spanish film of which Vanilla Sky was a remake.

Having seen both, it’s true that the American version bulldozes through some of the subtlety of the original, but this time the Hollywood treatment actually makes a much more compelling film. In Vanilla Sky, Sofia is a character who the screenplay writer probably thought was one of the most complex female characters ever written, but onscreen she’s the clichéd ‘deep’ love interest who only serves to deepen the main characters story and personality. Cameron Diaz is much more entertaining because at least with Julie she’s given something more interesting to work with in Julie’s obsessive, neurotic personality and malicious jealousy.

Unfortunately, at times Vanilla Sky seems to bend to the whims and fame of Tom Cruise more than it should, leaving it to fall short of being a great movie. It’s a psychological thriller that dips into science fiction, with a great storyline and some beautiful cinematography, but overall it fails to explore some of the questions it asks that unfortunately leaves it a little like David’s former personality: shallow. Another problem is the big reveal and climax of the story. Vanilla Sky leaves a question mark hovering over the ending, leaving you to decide what to believe really happened in much the same way as Inception did with greater success.

This works nicely, but Vanilla Sky often leaves people confused, up until the third or fourth watch. Obviously there are just as many who are scratching their heads as the ending credits start up as there are who don’t need to watch it more than once to understand, but a good film shouldn’t leave so many people lost and confused. Don’t let its flaws put you off though, because Vanilla Sky is still entertaining and one of Tom Cruise’s best films. I would still recommend it over the Spanish original and there are a lot of interesting concepts presented in the film, let alone a thrilling and clever storyline.

Vanilla Sky Movie Trailer

Sam is a mentally challenged adult who’s got the IQ of a 7-year-old. He’s working at Starbucks. Don’t get scared, he’s doing menial work, nobody trusts him to even prepare a cappuccino. Few years ago he did have a girlfriend, a homeless young woman who run away from him the moment she got out of the hospital, after giving birth. He’s left now alone and with a baby he names Lucy (from his passion for the Beatles).

Raising a kid when you’ve got such serious mental issues is not a walk in the park but, with the help from his friends (not “shinier’ than he is) and a neighbour, our Sam pulls it through till the kid is 7. Huston, we’ve got a problem! The kid is now getting smarter than he is and gets target at school by others who make fun of her retarded father.

It’s the moment the people from the Department of Children and Family Services come into play (now, after he’s been raising a kid for 7 years already) and realize he’s not fit to be a parent. Having the kid taken away from him, Sam has to find a way to win her back. And this can only be done in the court of law.

Being paid so low as a Starbucks worker and still having no choice, Sam starts looking for a lawyer. Fate (and some coincidences) help him get Rita (Michelle Pfeiffer) a hot-shot Beverly Hills lawyer take his case.

I won’t bore you with other details, nor will I spoil the movie for you, enough said it’s not the greatest of all, but it’s a pleasant one, with some good actors performing at a high standard.