In general, this film is a parable. That a man cannot be happy cannot be master of his own destiny as long as he is in conflict with himself. The hero of Tom Cruise follows his passions, bitterly repents, repeats his mistakes again, snatches anger at loved ones; freaks out when you need to gather all your strength and fight, and enthusiastically waves his fists after a fight. Alas, if you do not know what you want, who you love and why you live in the world, neither your father’s money nor divine power will help you. And even if you go to heaven, you turn it into hell, because hell is always with you, in your subconscious.
The film is beautiful and spectacular, as spectacular as such a leisurely movie can be. The cast is quite stellar - in addition to Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Kurt Russell, Cameron Diaz lit up here. Even brought Tilda Swinton to a cameo role. Everyone, in principle, played well, however, Diaz seemed to me a bit overplayed. However, her character the whole film was in permanent hysteria, so maybe the excess expression was in the subject.
What the film should be reproached for is that it is clearly focused on a certain target audience, namely, intelligent girls. The glossy and glamorous life of the hero-majeure, handsome male characters, parties, stretched dating scenes, a certain touch of vintage (pictures, black and white films, cars of the 60-70s) - it is clear that the film is eager to please young humanities students who dream of a beautiful life.
But glamour and vintage do not negate, however, a serious philosophical message - before making any important decision, you need to restore order in your head. Defeat your inner demons, and then it may turn out that external problems are not so terrible, or even illusory. And I must say that “Vanilla Sky” reveals this idea more realistically and in an adult way than, say, “The Matrix”.
Yes, the film is secondary in some ways. And it’s not only that it’s a remake (with the advent of the Internet, I was generally surprised to realize that many Hollywood blockbusters are remakes of European or Asian films), but also that the very fantastic assumption borrowed from science fiction writer Philip Dick (I won’t say where, because there will be a spoiler). But to the credit of the filmmakers, it is worth admitting that the film is completely different.
Summary: A glossy parable about the consequences of chaos in one single head. It is quite worthy of viewing, despite the obvious focus on the girl audience.
8 out of 10
Original