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Dan Owen reviews
Paramount
- Cert: R
- Cat.no: 06689
- Running time: 135 minutes
- Year: 2001
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 1, NTSC
- Chapters: 28
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0
- Languages: English, French
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: $22.95
- Extras: ‘Prelude To A Dream’, ‘Hitting It Hard’, Photo Gallery, Unused Trailer,Theatrical Trailer, Interview with Paul McCartney, Music Video, Audio Commentary
Director:
- Cameron Crowe
Cast:
- David Aames: Tom Cruise
Sofia Serrano: Penelope Cruz
Julie Gianni: Cameron Diaz
Dr Curtis McCabe: Kurt Russell
Brian Shelby: Jason Lee
Thomas Tipp: Timothy Spall
Rebecca Dearborn: Tilda Swinton
Libby: Alicia Witt
Guest at David Aames’ party: Steven Spielberg (uncredited)
Cameron Crowe moved straight from directingAlmost Famousinto this altogether different piece starring Tom Cruise – who also headlined inCrowe’s prior comedyJerry Maguire.Vanilla Sky is a remake of Alejandro Amenabar’s foreign film Open Your Eyes, which starredPenelope Cruz – who reprises her role for Crowe’s remake.
Cruz again plays Sophia, a beautiful brunette who enchants Cruise’scharacter – David Aames, a rich playboy who has executive control of amulti-million dollar company. Problems start when David’s loose sexualrelationship with Julia (an effortlessly kooky Cameron Diaz) spirals outof control after Julia becomes insanely jealous of Sophia and commitssuicide by driving her car over a bridge – seriously injuring David.Then the problems only escalate into the bizarre…
And escalate is the word. Vanilla Sky is a curious film, almost goingunnoticed upon its release by the people who would probably get the mostout of it. The movie was marketed as a visually bizarre love tragedy -which it is. But it goes much deeper than that; transforming into thekind of film David Lynch would direct if he were a mainstream auteur.
To discuss Vanilla Sky too much destroys the surprises it has. Sufficeto say that this is a movie that easily stuns and enthrals thoseexpecting far less from an apparent Tom Cruise romantic vehicle.Watching it with relatively no preconceptions I was consistentlyentertained and psychologically stretched throughout its running time,and so will many others be.
Cameron Crowe surprises with his total command of the spiralling layersof script, effortlessly punctuating the madness with genuinely creepyscenes, sweet romance, sour drama, and conspiratorial ramblings. Theentire movie is engineered as some kind of bizarre pop video dream,which entrances with its beautiful settings, and unsettles with itsmakeup and undertones. Crowe may be one of the most diverse directorscurrently working in Hollywood, able to turn his hand to just aboutanything!
Cruise is his usual charismatic self, flashing his trademark grin, andfloating around the screen in designer clothes. Yet despite the facthe’s again peddling his image of The Perfect Man, he gets to play amore deeper, fractured, person here. Cruise is definitely undergoing ashift in expectations recently, leading on from Eyes Wide Shut and theupcoming Minority Report. It seems the lightweight roles are beingphased out, and a more adult actor emerging.
Penelope Cruz is a sassy and exotic as the script requires her to be,although how anyone prefers her to Cameron Diaz is – personally – beyondme. That said, Cruz is always engaging and scenes between herself andCruise have an added dimension given their real-life romance.
Cameron Diaz continues to be an unsung Goddess of the movies – blessedwith exotic looks that would sadly relegate her to mere eye-candy if itweren’t for the fact she can actually act! Okay, so she’s hardly in thesame league as Gwyneth Paltrow… but she consistently makes goodimpressions in films by being obviously pleasing to the eye but also aworthy acting asset.
The plot is intelligent and surprising throughout, littered with punchydialogue and smart twists. It’s not quite at the intellectual level ofLynch, but it can be regarded as a big-screen “Twilight Zone” for the21st Century.
Thoroughly entertaining, surprising, thought provoking, and with asatisfying conclusion, Vanilla Sky is an overlooked gem that shouldbuild up a greater appreciation on DVD than it did in the cinema. Justone question – what is the significance of the title?
Vanilla Sky arrives as one disk in an Amaray case, and features someminimalist animated menu screens that make the disk navigationexperience akin to using a Flash-based website. The screens are fairlyslow to load, but beautifully sparse with nice musical accompaniment.
Picture quality is very high, with the 1.85:1 anamorphic picture doingfine justice to the sumptuous imagery throughout. The night scenes aredeeply dark, while the daylight scenes are vivid and colourful. There’sminimal grain apparent, certainly nothing to distract your viewing, andoverall this is a fine transfer of a fine movie.
Sound is of a similarly high quality, being Dolby Digital 5.1 andgrowing more dynamic as the film progresses. There are many standoutscenes where the images onscreen come to life through surround soundeffects work, particularly in the night club sequence and the deafeningsilence in one scene brings home how absorbing surround sound can become- but you only notice when it vanishes in an instant. Nothing trulyexhilarating, but given the premise of the movie, you’re more satisfiedwith the aural experience than you think you’d be.
The Extra Features are far from plentiful, but what there is deservedspecial note because of originality amongst other DVD extra features.
‘Prelude To A Dream’ is a short, but very interesting, montage sequencecreated by editing together hours worth of video footage shot bydirector Cameron Crowe and others. The effect is a beautifulbehind-the-scenes featurette that offers you a chance to feel what itwas like to be involved with making the movie, rather than actual how itwas made. Short but sweet.
‘Hitting It Hard’ is a similar video reel, again shot by Crowe andcompanions, giving an insight into the massive press launch of the moviein 2001. It’s enlightening to see the cast and crew jetting around theworld in a mad rush, giving interviews and signing autographs forhysterical Japanese fans, together with the sombre interviews, stuffypress junkets, dozens of plane journeys, endless car journeys, and evenlate night dancing! Excellent, but again cruelly short!
Photo Gallery: hardly the most inspired addition to a DVD, but thephotos here are quite pretty and occasionally interesting. Only forthose really enamoured with the film, though.
Unused Trailer & Theatrical Trailer. Both handsome trailers areexcellent teasers for the film, and make much more sense once you’veseen Vanilla Sky. However, you can see why the film wasn’t the massivesuccess the crew may have been expecting – for all its visual whiz andTom Cruises’ star presence… it just looks like a tragic romanticcomedy with a silly surreal slant. The real meat of the film’s premiseis lost. Which, bizarrely, makes actually watching the film much moresurprising.
Vanilla Sky is not really deserving of its ‘Special Edition’ tag, butit’s a good DVD that presents the movie itself perfectly, while givingyou a few extras that never bore or become superfluous to the movie. Italso – sometimes – makes a change to own a DVD that won’t 6 hours towade through! However, Crowe may re-release Vanilla Sky again – thistime with definitive extra features – as he did previously withAlmost Famous.You have been warned.
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.