Vanilla Sky  
 written for the screen and directed by Cameron Crowe
starring Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz, Jason Lee, Kurt Russell.

     Cameron Crowe is known for making memorable hip films with quotable dialogue.  In Vanilla Sky, Crowe has created the antitheses of what we expect from him. 
     For one thing, the film is not an original idea, having been adapted from a Spanish film called Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) which starred Penelope Cruz in the exact role she plays again here.  The story tells of David Aames (Cruise), a good looking, rich, and charming publisher who finds out the hard way that women don't like to be "sex buddies".   The sex buddy, Julie (Diaz), drives the both of them off a bridge at 80mph the morning after David has met Sophia (Cruz), the girl of his dreams.  
     Awakened from a coma with a deformed face, David becomes even cockier than before as he begins to lose everything, including best friend Brian (Lee).  Then all of a sudden, Sophia falls in love with him, the plastic surgeons reconstruct his face perfectly, and life seems to be perfect again, until  David goes crazy as his conscience takes hold of him.  From there, the film travels into David Lynch territory before settling on Philip K. Dick. 
     Although I've never been a sucker for Crowe's films, especially his dialogue, the first half of Vanilla Sky was the worst of them all.  Not only does it not have the quotability of his usual writing, but you can tell where he meant for there to be in the forced, repeated lines like, "She is the saddest girl to ever hold a martini," and, "I hope we will meet again in another life when we are both cats."   The main problem with both of these lines, though, is with the wretched Penelope Cruz.   I can't understand why so many people love this actress, who, to me, crosses over the line of cute reaching a destination comparable to an annoying child.  Also, any dialogue spoken by a deformed or mask-wearing David is too muffled and incoherent to be quotable.  It is here where I could swear that Ben Stiller took over the part of David and did a charicature of a deformed Tom Cruise. 
     The second half of the film was much more enjoyable for me.  Reminiscent of Lost Highway and Total Recall, it went into surprising twists allowing my brain to wake up from the droll that was the first hour.  Although Crowe does not redeem himself completely, the Philip Dick influence at least makes the story enjoyable, as it also helped a horrible Paul Verhoeven at one time.   But then, at least Verhoeven had the nerve to leave less spelled out for us at the end.   Crowe, on the other hand, give us more of a spoon fed clue as to what is going on during a tiresome monologue. 
      It was brave for Crowe to attempt new grounds in his career.   It was even braver of Crowe to cast a fellow Cameron, a Cruise, a Cruz, and a lot of inaudible speech from behind masks or behind thick accents.   Lets hope that Crowe can just continue to supply us with generation defining rock and roll movies.

Tom Cruise defends his heterosexuality after a spat of impotence with Cameron Diaz.