Cameron Crowe
Vanilla Sky

LA RECENSIONE

It’s always frustrating when a director who once started with a bang gradually descends into mediocrity. Cameron Crowe, who gave us some decent films and the genuinely great Almost Famous, nosedives spectacularly with Vanilla Sky.

A pointless remake of a successful Spanish film, Vanilla Sky tries to juggle romantic drama, psychological thriller, and sci-fi mystery, and spectacularly fails on every front. The clunky three-part structure, tangled with confusing flashbacks or flashforwards (who can tell?), only adds to the headache.

The first act is your textbook cloying meet-cute. David, a smug, wealthy womaniser, spends his birthday night flirting shamelessly with Sofia - his best friend’s date - while his one-night stand Julie simmers with a jealousy that’s just a few bad decisions away from disaster. David and Sofia’s interminable flirtation is soaked in wide-eyed, pseudo-spiritual babble about “delayed pleasure.” If saccharine were a drug, this would be an overdose.

Act two takes a darker turn - Julie, in full psycho-ex mode, drives David and herself off a bridge. She dies; David survives, disfigured, traumatized, and suddenly no longer “golden boy”. He tries to win Sofia back, who might just tolerate his physical and emotional new scars.

By act three, the film completely unravels into nonsense. David is in jail for murder, confessing to a shrink as scenes from earlier begin to warp into incomprehensibility. The twists are so clumsy, the mystery so bloated, that by the final reveal, the only question left is: Who cares? (Spoiler: was it all a dream? Yes, but no… therefore, not a spoiler. You don't understand? That's the movie for you.)

The editing is a chaotic, overlapping mess; Tom Cruise hammers his trademark manic grin into every frame, often where it makes no sense; Penélope Cruz turns syrupy to the point of unbearable; the soundtrack bludgeons every scene; and the open-ended finale is just the cherry of artificial whipped cream on this mud cake.

Some claim Vanilla Sky earned a cult following - and sure, in today’s era of pretentiousness masquerading as profundity, it’s not surprising. But make no mistake: this is a glossy, confused, and confusing pseudo-philosophical disaster disguised as depth.