Vanilla Sky: Movie Review (2008)

Editor's Note: Tom Cruise's "Valkyrie" opens tomorrow--review of that coming shortly. In the meantime, while writing the review, I was reminded of Cameron Crowe's "Vanilla Sky," which starred Cruise before his career took a nosedive. Plenty of people liked "Sky"--and plenty disliked it. I liked it. It hasn't been archived on the site, so the original 2001 review runs below.


Written and directed by Cameron Crowe, 130 minutes, rated R.

“Most of us live our whole lives without any real adventure to call our own,” says a character in Cameron Crowe’s bold new movie, “Vanilla Sky.” “What is any life if not the pursuit of a dream?”

David Aames (Tom Cruise), the super-rich, ultra-spoiled publishing tycoon at the heart of this trippy tale, certainly finds out.

Indeed, when David’s charmed life is ripped apart after dumping his off-and-on sex partner Julie Gianni (Cameron Diaz) for the softer, prettier curves of Sofia Serrano (Penelope Cruz), he’s tossed into a nightmare of his own.

The full extent of that nightmare won’t be revealed here, but since it does take up 75 percent of the movie, elements will be discussed. Reader beware.

“Vanilla Sky” is a reworking of Alejandro Amenabar’s 1998 Spanish stunner, “Open Your Eyes.” It’s not as stark or as emotionally chilly as that film, which starred Penelope Cruz in the same role, but then how could it be given that it’s named after a painting by Monet and that it comes from the director of “Say Anything,” “Jerry Maguire” and “Almost Famous,” three films that established Crowe as an unabashed romantic.

That said, “Sky” stands as Crowe’s edgiest, most uncommercial film, a true departure that would never have been made without the director’s influence and the box-office appeal of his super-star cast. For Crowe, the project must have been liberating. Imagine the freedom of not warming the masses with sentiment, the thrill of asking viewers to open their eyes and think.

Without giving too much away, “Vanilla Sky” follows this year’s other head trips-- “Waking Life,” “Mulholland Drive” and “Memento”--in that it tackles 2001’s most provocative theme for filmmakers: What happens when our dreams collide with reality?

For David Aames, what happens is a disfiguring car accident, a murder rap, the potential loss of his publishing empire and the nagging idea that the love of his life might be a figment of his imagination.

What’s real? What isn’t? Crowe blurs the lines and shakes up the landscape, but he doesn’t show his hand. As “Vanilla Sky” jackknifes into its wealth of Lynchian twists and Kubrickian turns, most of which make little sense until the film’s final moments, the audience is asked to be patient in ways that most mainstream movies never ask them to be patient.

That decision might kill the film’s appeal with some, but keep in mind that an open mind might also free it with others.

Grade: B+


View the trailer below: