Vanilla Sky

A faithful remake of Alejandro Amenabar's Open Your Eyes, Vanilla Sky sees Tom Cruise playing David Aames, a part time media mogul and full time playboy. On the night of his 33rd birthday party, though, he meets Sofia (Cruz), a mysterious dancer who captures his heart. Casting aside his current beau, Julie Gianni (the splendid Diaz), Aames falls in love with Sofia. Devastated, Julie decides to kill herself and David in a car crash. And though he survives the smash, Aames is horribly disfigured and has trouble making out what is real and what is not real. To say any more about Vanilla Sky's plot would be unfair, but this is one of the intriguing and indeed, baffling pictures Cruise (and Crowe) has made. For the most part, the film makes salient comment on the folly of male vanity, but the final third sees it segue into science fiction territory, which some will find preposterous. That said, all of the players are very convincing and, for the most part, Crowe directs with no little skill or energy. You might not understand everything in Vanilla Sky, but this is highly entertaining stuff.