Film Review: Vanilla Sky (2001)

While most Hollywood remakes in past decades can be described as “pointless”, remakes of non-Hollywood films can be justified by allowing American audience to enjoy good screen stories without having to read subtitles and, more importantly, bringing Hollywood studios more money than the authors of the original could ever dream of. Vanilla Sky, Hollywood adaptation of highly regarded Spanish science fiction thriller Open Your Eyes did just that, but whether it was a good film was completely different matter.

The protagonist, played by Tom Cruise, is David Aames, owner of large publishing company in New York City. The plot begins when he, under the prosthetic mask, is being questioned by forensic psychologist Dr. Curtis McCabe (played by Kurt Russell). He explains the series of frightening and confusing events that led him there. Short time ago he was living a dream; after inheriting the company from his father, he left the management to the directors while himself indulged in hedonistic playboy lifestyle. One night his best friend introduces him to beautiful young woman Sofia Serrano (played by Penelope Cruz). Two of them spend the night together, but this doesn’t sit well with Julia Gianni (played by Cameron Diaz), David’s former girlfriend who turned into obsessive stalker. When she offers him ride in her car, David accepts, not knowing that she has some dark intentions and that it would be start of series of confusing and macabre events that would make him question his grasp of reality.

Viewers’ enjoyment of Vanilla Sky would depend on whether they watched Open Your Eyes or not. Writer and director Cameron Crowe was remained extremely faithful to the Alejandro Amenabar’s original, and in this particular case this led to the film that looks like unimaginative copy, even with much larger budget. A lot of budget was spent on special effects, but even more on the cast, including Tom Cruise, one of the largest Hollywood stars at the time and one of the producers. Inevitable comparisons with Eduardo Noriega who played his counterpart in Open Your Eyes make Cruise look too “posh” and too Hollywood-like, and the actor’s vanity also made disfigurement of his character, which makes important part of the plot, less severe than in Spanish original. The rest of the cast is mostly unremarkable, including Penelope Cruz who repeats her role from Amenabar’s film. The only good acting performance comes from Cameron Diaz who plays one of the darkest characters of her career. Crowe, to his credit, tries to do make his film different from Open Your Eyes in at least one detail. Film is full of pop and rock classic songs which fill almost any scene, but often without any relevance to the plot. This typically Hollywood brand of soundtrack make more perceptive audience lose necessary suspension of disbelief, while younger audience is going to be baffled. Vanilla Sky, thanks to Cruise’s unquestionable star power and good PR, got good result at the box office, but the critics weren’t enthusiastic. Although more than watchable and at times entertaining, Vanilla Sky, like most Hollywood remakes, represents disappointment.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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