| |
|
My final decision, after much pondering, is that I dislike this film and everything it stands for. But, it did leave me with an acrid enough aftertaste that I’ve been kicking the scenes through my brain for the last three days or so. Does that make it good? Even though, from an objective stance it’s shit, it DID manage to tug on my strings for awhile. I’ll say this -- it’s yet another example of how Morrison’s invisible meme is penetrating every media on the planet. The pathetic part is that Vanilla Sky is a hack-job of already existing subversive or creative film ideas. The Matrix, The Sixth Sense and David Lynch (parallels between evil blondes and innocent brunettes) were thoroughly raped. What I can’t figure out is who did the raping -- Cameron Crowe or the original director/writer of “Open Your Eyes”?
First thing. I hate it for manipulating my emotions in such a cheap way. Every base level archetype within the first hour of the film gets you teetering on the edge. You’ve got the “lost true love” and the “man who had everything”. Even the idea that the ONE decision he makes -- ruins everything he might have had -- is too simple of an attack on our audience ego. Once again, I don’t know if that makes Vanilla Sky a success or not. But I despise being cheaply pulled around like a rag doll, especially when there was so much opportunity to explore conflicts that would have been wholly original. I think Cameron Diaz’s semi-psychotic obsession with sex as a “promise” was skimmed over WAY too fast. We never return to her, or her motivation, or exactly how much relevance her actions have on the Cruize duo. Even with the script, there was such a hook to bring the “four times in one night” thing back later in the movie. Instead Tommy-C turns it into a quippy one liner. The movie’s final resolution wipes away any potential moral the events of the film might have laid out -- and simplifies it into the choice between a perfect fantasy or an imperfect reality -- without ANY foundation.
I’m also annoyed by this whole “the soundtrack is great” buzz that’s swarming about. Who ever schemed this project out, took great pains to give it some sort of avant-garde credibility -- such that even if the audience manages to realize the sleaziness of the production, there will still be that hip-factor going on for it (see: “Singles”).
Personally, I found the Radiohead intro to be laughable. It was almost a mockery of itself. How about, “So dude, what do you want to listen to? Radiohead? Or Sigur Ros?”
Or Penelope Cruz:
“Do you like Jeff Buckley?”
Alright already! Enough name-dropping! I get it! Cameron Crowe likes rock and roll! And despite being a forty-something millionaire director married to a forty-something has-been rock star -- he STILL keeps up with all the underground music that WE do!!! Amazing!
And Jason Lee, while being an underground icon, is not a very talented actor. He was just as much pseudo-subversive backdrop as the soundtrack, Monet, and Tilda Swinton.
I don’t see this movie as a head fuck for anyone. Any corrupting element it might have had was erased by the Dallas-style ending. I wish I could agree -- because that’s just what Hollywood needs right now -- a movie that transcends genre and offers up conflict ideas that the audience would normally not be subject to. |
|
|
