VANILLA SKY
© 2002 Paramount Home Entertainment

Mania Grade: B-
Disc Grade: B-
Reviewed Format: DVD
Rated: R
Stars: Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Kurt Russell, Jason Lee, Noah Taylor, Cameron Diaz
Writer: Cameron Crowe, based upon the film ABRE LOS OJOS written by Alejandro Amenábar and Mateo Gil
Director: Cameron Crowe
Distributor: Paramount Home Video
Original Year of Release: 2001
Suggested Retail Price: $29.99
Extras: widescreen anamorphic; Dolby Digital 5.1; Dolby 2.0 Surround; audio commentary; featurettes; interview with Paul McCartney; music video; unreleased teaser trailer; international theatrical trailer; photo gallery with audio introduction by photographer Neal Preston; Easter egg; French Dolby 2.0 Surround; English subtitles

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VANILLA SKY

Wunderkind director Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, Say Anything...) missed a beat with last year's Vanilla Sky, a remake of Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes), the 1997 Spanish thriller. Re-teaming with his Jerry Maguire star Tom Cruise, Crowe provides another group of richly-realized characters and carefully crafted visuals and sounds, but this time it's in a film where the plot keeps the viewer guessing from start to finish. If the picture doesn't satisfactorily resolve all of the puzzles that it sets up, it nonetheless does provide an absorbingif flawedride along the way.

Open Your Eyes made its mark on American art house filmgoers as well as genre fans when it premiered in 1997; more recently, its director, Alejandro Amenábar, has gained prominence in the U.S. with the like-minded, brain-twisting Nicole Kidman thriller The Others. Open Your Eyes so impressed Crowe and Cruise that they decided to remake it, the result being Vanilla Skywhich is indeed a fairly accurate translation of the original.

Cruise stars as David Aames, a handsome and rich Manhattan playboy who has all the toys he could wish forincluding women. One such plaything is Julie (Cameron Diaz), a beautiful but off-kilter woman who he sees as a "buddy"albeit one he sleeps with. Julie, though, wants something more from David, and she soon takes on the less than charming qualities of a stalker.

Meanwhile, David meets the girl of his dreamsperhaps literallyat a bash he throws. She is Sofia (Cruise's real-life paramour Penélope Cruz, returning for the role she played in the original), and the two seem to bond with one another very quickly, even though she is actually attending the party as a guest of David's friend (Jason Lee). David and Sofia leave together and spend the night at her apartment simply talking, which is rare for the sexual adventurer that David is. But the insanely jealous Julie show up the following morning as David is leaving Sofia's place, and she tricks him into getting into her car before driving it off of a bridge at high speed in a fit of rage, killing herself and badly scarring David in the process.

From this point on, the main gist of the film kicks in, with its examination of the lines between reality and fantasy, dreams and nightmares. Vanilla Sky is one of those pictures where you're never quite sure if what you're watching is real or not, and this is hinted at from the very beginning when Cruise's character dreams of being in New York's Times Square all alone. It's an intense scene, as the abandoned center of the city, with all of its billboards and neon signs and displays, seems to be focused on Cruise and Cruise alone as he tries to run away in panic.

Many such images are to be found in Crowe's film which, like its predecessor, shifts between genres, hitting everything from the thriller to romance to sci-fi. The story is told in flashback (sort of), as we learn that Davidwho is now wearing a mask to hide his mutilated faceis in jail accused of murder. For the patient viewer, most of the questions and enigmas at the center of the film are answered eventually (if not always adequately), but for many it might prove to be too little too late for the film can be confusing and too self-indulgent at times. Vanilla Sky is an interesting experiment from the usually reliable Crowe, but it is far from his best work.

Vanilla Sky is presented on this single disc release via a widescreen anamorphic transfer. English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby 2.0 Surround are offered. It should be noted that this disc is not a special edition presentation like Crowe's two-disc collections for Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous. Regardless, Paramount manages to offer a fair amount of extra features here, starting with the audio commentary with Crowe and the film's music composer, Nancy Wilson (who also happens to be Crowe's wifeand former member of '80s rock band Heart)she actually offers occasional musical accompaniment during the talk! As anyone familiar with Crowe's previous interviews and commentaries will expect, the filmmaker provides a laid-back but interesting talk here. Also injected into this talk is a section featuring Cruise, billed as "a conversation with" the actor, which I suppose it is since Crowe literally telephones his leading man to chat on the track for about 10 minutes. Seeing as how Cruise is a superstar who clearly has a lot of input into the making of his films, it would have been nice if the entire track had focused on him and Crowe together, but as it stands this talk is still worthwhile.

Two featurettes are included, dubbed "Prelude to a Dream" and "Hitting it Hard." Unfortunately, while they're both well-produced, they're also both quite short. "Prelude to a Dream" clocks in at about six minutes, and while it focuses on how Crowe got involved re-making Alejandro Amenábar's picture, it is disappointing that the segment is so brief. The piece serves as a kind of intro to the main feature, with footage of casting sessions and other pre-production elements. "Hitting it Hard" is also too short, though this featurette manages to at least break the 10-minute mark; it deals with the press tour for Vanilla Sky.

There's also a section called "Music" which gives us an interview with Paul McCartney, whose title song for the film was nominated for an Oscar. The talk only runs about a minute and a half though, and it actually comes from an Entertainment Tonight profile! Hearing Paul talk is always worthwhileeven if it's just for a minutebut for some reason the video for the song is not present. Instead, a clip called "Afrika Shox" by Leftfield/Afrika Bambaataa is included.

Crowe's photographer friend from his Rolling Stone days, Neal Preston, is present for an audio introduction to the extensive photo gallery. These include publicity shots as well as production photos. You'll also find an Easter egg here that leads to five minutes of bloopers, outtakes and the such, plus the international trailer and a previously unreleased teaser trailer.