They would seem to have it all - wealth, influence, powerful friends and a beautiful 7 year-old daughter. William and his wife Alice (Kidman) are nearing their tenth year of marriage, and enjoying a life of privilege on New York's upper west side. The opening scenes of 'Eyes Wide Shut' are the best, and are quite tantalizing. William Harford (Cruise) into a descent into a netherworld of jealously, infidelity and betrayal. Instead, Kubrick's convoluted yet intimate narrative transforms the life-affirming sexual odyssey of the book's Dr. In this case, those particulars include all traces of sexiness, romance and warmth. Took great liberties with Schnitzler's original story, extracting the simple kernel of the idea and largely dispensing with the particulars. Consistent with his approach to other literary adaptations, Kubrick Running 159 minutes, 'Eyes Wide Shut' is certainly the most epic piece of erotica ever committed to mainstream celluloid. But it is it a train wreck devoid of any and all merit? Hardly.
Instead, I was rather pleasantly surprised. I didn't see 'Eyes Wide Shut' until it first hit DVD, and by that point I had been bombarded by so many negative reactions that I expected a disaster of epic proportions. Luckily for me, diminished expectations can be a godsend. In fact, 'Eyes Wide Shut' wasn't just poorly received, it was eviscerated. Despite an almost unheard-of level of advance buzz, audiences were cool, and critics surprisingly dismissive of what was supposed to be Kubrick's final masterpiece (the director passed away shortly before its If the subsequent critical and commercial reaction to 'Eyes Wide Shut' is anything to go by, the answer is not very well. How would the sensibilities of Kubrick, cinema's most notorious control freak, mesh with the dream-like, naturalistic tone of Schnitzler's novella, the pages of which which oozed with sexual impulse and unbridled, erotic passion? So when it was announced that he would adapt the erotic novella "Traumnovelle" by Arthur Schnitzler for his next film project (and that it would star Hollywood's then-hottest couple, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman), more than a few eyebrows were raised. By 1996, Stanley Kubrick had been called many things throughout his legendary forty-plus career in film, but "sexy" wasn't one of them.
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