Eyes Wide Shut, the Kubrick film that causes the most mixed feelings. People don’t know how to feel about Kubrick’s final film. When people ask me my thoughts on this film it’s always so hard to comment as for most of Kubrick’s films. This is because his films are so complex that they have a large amount of layers and have such a deeper meaning to them. I can’t describe all of the perfection of his films in a single film review. It’s hard for me to find flaws in them. One has to think when watching his films and that’s where many people consider this a problem. They rather not think when watching a film, they just want to see a popcorn flick or some mindless Sandler film. One must think especially with Eyes Wide Shut. Kubrick never liked to have his films explaining themselves to the viewers. The film is a reflection on sexuality and how it‘s in association with many things such as: death, marriage, and money. So it’s a shame that Eyes Wide Shut was advertised as a steamy erotic thriller because it’s not that at all and Kubrick wouldn’t have allowed that to happen if he were alive.
The story is about Bill who is a doctor that lives happily with his wife and child. He and his wife go to a party and she dances with a man that brings up memories. Later she then tells him of the time she almost slept with another man and she really wanted to have an affair with him. She doesn’t regret it one bit. This triggers him to have a wide variety of emotions like re-examining his relationship with her. Thus causing him to take a trip through his sexual subconscious or as many people call it “into the rainbow”.
Throughout his trip into the rainbow he confronts many hidden sexual fantasies and anxieties. His fantasies are orgies, sex with someone much younger than he is, paid sex, and simply the sex without consequence. His anxieties being homosexuality, sexual disease, and being found out. First a prostitute who wants to have sex, paid of course, with Bill, confronts him. He only gets through the kiss before respectably declining. Then a storeowner’s young daughter hits on him, yet he moves on. Then comes the orgy. The orgy isn’t what one would consider kinky and almost all the women look similar to Nicole Kidman’s body structure. So this is maybe what a married man’s fantasy of an orgy might look like. Everyone at the orgy is wearing a mask to cover their faces and this may represent Bill’s internal struggle to comprehend or acknowledge his wife’s sexuality. The first of his sexual anxieties come when he is walking down the street when a group of college gay bashers push him calling him many obscenities. This could be a fear of repressed homosexual urges or it could simply mean he thinks he has lost his masculinity because of what his wife has told him. Bill goes back to where he met the prostitute only to discover she’s gone and to find out she has aids. Lastly, Bill’s fear of being found out. He’s a respectable doctor and doesn’t want his sexual fantasies out in the open. In the end he comes to comprehend that fantasies are simply fantasies.
Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut is truly an unacknowledged masterpiece. It’s been overlooked on so many levels and has been misinterpreted from the general viewer. The film essentially examines most male’s fears… the loss of their masculinity. The use of music is bold and brilliant. I’m in awe of every shot of this film. Kubrick proves he was one of the best directors to ever live. Eyes Wide Shut is sadly the last temptation of Kubrick.
4.9 out of 5
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