"VANILLA SKY" (reviewed by OG)

Call me a bitch, but I dug Cameron Crowe's SINGLES...a glorified chick-flick dressed in grunge. And yes, I also got a marginal kick out of JERRY MAGUIRE...a glorified chick flick dressed as...a chick flick. ALMOST FAMOUS was a blast, though, full of pure sentiment and a love of the musical art form. It's SAY ANYTHING, though, that I can't stand. Too much cheese in that particular taco, I'm afraid.

VANILLA SKY is Crowe's newest foray into the world of Working-With-Tom-Cruise, and I'll be damned if the guy doesn't score a goal. SKY, a remake of Alejandro Amenabár's ABRE LOS OJOS, is a dizzying film...one that is sure to anger Cruise and Crowe fans alike. Most of them, of course, will be expecting a rosy romantic thriller, replete with a picture perfect ending...what they'll get is a hearty dosage of chaos, mixed in with an oscar-worthy performance by the pretty boy himself.

The film follows David Aames (Cruise), the playboy president of a successful men's magazine, and his unexpected discovery of true love at the hands of Sophia (Penelope Cruz, who has, for some reason, always looked like a starved vulture to me), a girl introduced to him at an upscale party by his best friend (badass-as-always Jason Lee). They spend an amazing night together, and the next morning Cruise is confronted by an obsessive "fuck-buddy" (Cameron Diaz, whose smile is downright blinding). He agrees, out of guilt, to take a ride with her, and she goes ape-shit, driving the car off a bridge...killing herself and leaving Cruise horribly disfigured and crippled.

Think I've given away too much? Don't worry...I haven't. What follows is a psychological whirlwind, following Cruise through a series of events filled with pop-culture references and mind-shattering visuals. Is Diaz really dead? Is Sophia really Sophia? Is Cruise even really disfigured? The questions stack up, and when the answers come crashing down, you'll find yourself giddy with excitement. For that matter...any movie that praises the music of Jeff Buckley makes it into my "cool" book.

This one's bound to piss the public off, and that's what makes it a success. Mainstream Hollywood needs a huge and swift kick to the nads, and VANILLA SKY delivers it with a spiked boot. It pulls off two fantastic tricks: improving on the original (Amenabár's version suffocates the audience a bit too much) and giving Tom Cruise yet another reason to laugh at his naysayers (the guy killed me in MAGNOLIA). Oh...and extra kudos to Crowe for giving Kurt Russell a decent role for once...

(12.19.01)