Why Time Made Eyes Wide Shut Better: A Masterpiece Re-evaluated
Cruise, who spent much of the 1990s working to prove himself as a "Serious Actor," delivers arguably his finest performance here. Bill Harford is the opposite of Cruise's typical alpha characters—a man so sexually bewildered that the Fates themselves seem to conspire against his ability to find any satisfaction at all. Cruise abandons his usual movie-star charisma, allowing himself to appear pathetic, confused, and vulnerable in ways that are genuinely uncomfortable to watch. film eyes wide shut better
The film's inciting incident is deceptively simple. After attending a lavish Christmas party, Bill and Alice Harford smoke marijuana and discuss their marriage. When Bill smugly asserts his certainty that she would never cheat, Alice responds with a confession that shatters his world: she once fantasized about abandoning her family for a handsome naval officer she glimpsed on vacation. Why Time Made Eyes Wide Shut Better: A
In that two-minute monologue, Nicole Kidman wins the movie. She destroys Bill’s entire worldview. Bill is a man of wealth, status, and medical authority. He believes the world is ordered and that he is in control. Alice reveals that her inner life—her primal, uncontrollable desire—is a universe he cannot enter, let alone command. The film's inciting incident is deceptively simple