Poll Position: Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Last week's poll was a collection of Nicole Kidman films, and we asked you to pick which one we should watch. Eyes Wide Shut won out over The Hours by just a few votes. What I didn't expect when I sat down to watch this movie was exactly how much of Nicole Kidman I was about to see! Directed by Stanley Kubrick, the movie also stars Tom Cruise, and actually he's the focus of the movie as he goes through one crazy night. I haven't been a big fan of the past few Kubrick movies I'd seen, so I was slightly concerned. My full thoughts after the jump.


Tom Cruise plays the successful Doctor William "Bill" Harford. He's a good man and he loves his family dearly. One night, some drunken flirting at a party and a mistaken absence causes his wife to accuse him of cheating, which he didn't do. This causes Alice to confess she once had a fantasy about a man she saw on vacation and would have left him and her daughter just for one night with this man. Nothing happened, but the realization drives Bill over the edge. After having to go out to see a patient, he wanders the streets in a daze and one crazy thing leads to another, even more crazy thing. He has no idea what he's about to stumble upon!

As a doctor, Bill & his wife Alice get invited to some fancy parties

To be able to talk about this movie, I'm going to have to spoil the crazy thing that Bill comes across. Just so you have fair warning. I really have no idea how to talk about it otherwise. SPOILERS FOLLOW.

Bill runs into an old school friend who now works as a pianist, and he hints at having a secret gig. He even has to have a password and wear a blindfold while he plays for them! He gets the call for the location while talking with Bill at the night club, and Bill sees him write down the password. He's told he needs to have a cloak and mask to get in, so Bill goes off to a costume store that an old patient of his owned. Turns out it's under new ownership, and after yet another strange turn of events, he gets his costume. He gets a taxi to head to the address his friend gave him, and he approaches and gives the password; it works.

Crazy creepy sex cult

What he finds is a huge mansion filled with similarly cloaked, hooded, and masked figures. There seems to be some kind of ceremony going on and not long after, some of the figures drop their cloaks and are revealed to be incredibly hot, nearly naked women, all except for their high heels, a g-string, and their mask. One of the masked women approaches him and warns him to leave but he ignores her warnings. What proceeds is a crazy cult-like orgy. Eventually he is discovered and unmasked. They threaten him and it's all very tense. Without going into every detail, he gets out of there and is told to never ask questions about them again.

All of this is only half way through the film. From then on it becomes a mystery about who these people are and what happened. Then you get the creepy thriller element added in as it appears he's being followed! Well that's what you get when you don't stop asking questions like they told you to!

Tom Cruise as Bill in his cloak and mask disguise

There wasn't a single moment of this movie that I wasn't intrigued, fascinated, amazed and puzzled as to what was going on. I never expected to see so much nudity, not only of Nicole Kidman, but of countless other women, and I certainly never expected a sex cult to show up in the middle!

Speaking of the cult, the masks they wear, and you see a ton of them and they're all different, were amazing. I want a crazy mask like those! I don't want to be in a cult, but I'll take the mask!

More crazy masks!

At the start of the film, I was amazed and impressed just by their rich lives of going to parties and living in a huge apartment that is like a mansion itself, but it all pales in comparison to what he finds that night. This is easily my favorite Kubrick film to date. Not hard since I haven't enjoyed that many of them. He certainly ended on a high note.

I definitely recommend this movie to anyone (adults only!) and I can't really see how many wouldn't enjoy this. It has a good pacing and there's always something going on, the acting is good and it's beautifully shot. The only complaint I can think of is that it's a long movie at 2 1/2 hours, and towards the end I started to feel it. Other than that, seek it out and make sure the kids are in bed!