Eyes Wide Shut: Blu-ray disc, HD DVD Review (2007)

Stanley Kubrick’s last comment on the world takes place in the bedroom of “Eyes Wide Shut,” a film that stars the then-married Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise as a married couple struggling with the ramifications of sexual fantasy.

The movie is about how sexual fantasies, when revealed, have the power to alter relationships.

Structured as a thriller, it follows Dr. Bill and Alice Hartford, a glamorous Manhattan couple who seemingly have it all until Alice shares with Bill one of her sexual fantasies.

The revelation sends Bill--and this relationship--into a tailspin. Fiercely jealous, Bill takes to the streets, where his own sexual desires are fueled with the help of prostitutes and a swanky masked orgy.

The film is pointlessly too long and it features performances that are too rigid to suit, but it nevertheless has strokes of genius.

As you'd expect from Kubrick, this is a cerebral film that works on several levels--the illusory, the real, the ethereal and everything that falls in between.

It is, in fact, Kubrick’s close examination of what falls in between--and how that relates to human relationships--that makes his 13th and final feature film worth seeing.

Rated R. Grade B+

Disc Features:
• Audio commentary by Sydney Pollack and historian Peter Loewenberg
• Channel 4 documentary: "The Last Movie: Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut"
• Featurette: "Lost Kubrick: The Unfinished Films of Stanley Kubrick"
• Kubrick's 1998 DGA D.W. Griffith Award acceptance speech
• Interview gallery featuring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Steven Spielberg
• Theatrical trailer
• TV spots

HD Exclusive Content:
None