Vanilla Sky – More ‘Lynchian’ than love

It’s hard to imagine that in 2001 a love story starring Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz was actually considered a Box Office failure.  But then that’s because it wasn’t a love story.  However, much of the marketing that surrounded it concentrated on the ‘relationship aspect’ of the film, lulling people into thinking this was what they would be getting.  Therefore, by the time they had left the cinema and their heads had stopped spinning, they possibly were among the many who simply described ‘Vanilla Sky’ as a ‘mess.’ Yes, the story is centres around a print billionaire (Tom Cruise’s) slowly falling in love with a struggling artist (Penelope Cruz) while at the same time trying to fend off his existing lover (Cameron Diaz).  So far, nothing particularly out of the ordinary.  However, once the film gets going (and I say this referring to much that comes in the second half, as the first half sets everything up without giving too much away as to what’s about to come) things start taking a turn for the weird.

Dreams are mentioned more than once and that’s a good analogy as to how the film progresses.  Things happens that appear a little random, leaving the audience to wonder whether there may ever be some form of supernatural influence involved.  The story chops and changes and deliberately leaves the viewer feeling pretty disorientated, much like you’d feel upon waking up from a particularly vivid dream.  Naturally, this form of story-telling doesn’t make for an easy ride when it comes to understanding the narrative.  I can see it leaving some people a little confused (it took me a couple of watches to actually ‘get’ the film entirely!).

I mentioned ‘Lynchian’ in my title.  This refers to film-maker David Lynch, who’s famous for his weird, surreal, completely NON classic Hollywood narrative way of telling a story.  He, like ‘Vanilla Sky,’ likes to leave a fair element of the story up to the viewers’ interpretation, rather than spoon-feeding them every plot point.  Therefore, this is most likely a film that you’re going to find yourself discussing with friends after a viewing (although, in my opinion, ‘Vanilla Sky’ actually gives you a lot more answers than the average David Lynch film!).

If you know what you’re in for I think people who are in the mood for a particularly weird and slightly disturbing type of film will quite enjoy this.  You definitely have to be in the mood.  I’ve seen it a fair few times, but, if I’m simply craving car chases and shoot-outs, then this isn’t the film I put on.  I think if anything sums it up best it’s Cameron Diaz’s performance in ‘Vanilla Sky’ – on the surface, sweet and frothy.  However, dig deep and you’ll find dark and creepy (and that’s not an insult – she’s really good in this!).

8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one