Film review: Vanilla Sky

    Vanilla Sky held me and my attention captive for the entire 2.5 hours of its duration. Propelling itself from the blurring gamut of holiday movies, this film questions reality and leaves you clamoring for explanations. The immediate reaction following this movie is the overwhelming drive to see it again.
     Tom Cruise plays a dual role - splitting his time between hot-bodied copulation and disfigured-bodied coping. Very little about this plot is immediately clear, but we do know that Cruise plays David Aames: a young, filthy rich magazine mogul that falls in love with the stunning Sofia, played by Penelope Cruz. The twist is that Aames’s sometimes concubine, played by Cameron Diaz, throws a jealous fit that climaxes with her driving both herself and Aames over a bridge, killing herself and leaving him with a horribly disfigured face and speech impairment.
     Reality is never clear again as we see Cruise, Cruz and Diaz in fantastically confusing scenes of interwoven perceptions.
     Visually, the film is shot with such vividness and detail that it could be enjoyed simply as art. But, the emotion and tangle of problems keeps you on the edge of your toesuntil the ending starts pushing you into the seat cushion. It is a very fine film that may not be enjoyed by those that are so anal as to need to know exactly what is happening all the time or by those with short attention spans.

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