I am not a fan of Tom Cruise films for the most part because there are just too many of them. Sure, they are entertaining in a mindless way. However, with very few exceptions they are extremely predictable and follow the same Hollywood format of hero faces monumental task, hero faces a setback, hero rebuilds, hero nearly loses but in the end wins just barely. Vanilla Sky, despite making $100 million in the USA, hasn't been seen by most of the people I talk to. Many of them have never even heard of it.
Tom plays the role of David Aames, an extremely wealthy owner of a large publishing something or other. He lives an enviable life of luxury. He doesn't really need to work at the firm and leaves its running mostly to the board of directors while he just kind of does whatever. This isn't how the film starts out though.
The film begins with David (Cruise) in a prison cell being interviewed by a psychologist played by Kurt Russel. Aames is wearing a mask and I don't think I should reveal why as it is a major part of the film that gets revealed to you pretty early on.
The film also stars an absolutely stunning Penlope Cruz who plays David's love interest, Sophia.
as well as an absolutely terrifying Cameron Diaz who is David's slightly crazy ex-lover, Julie.
- I never thought it would be possible to find Diaz so scary*
So what makes this film so great (for me) is probably because it is a psychological thriller and as the movie goes on a bit of sci-fi is introduced. However, telling you how would also be a bit of a massive spoiler. The movie doesn't take the usual predictible turns and at least for me, I couldn't see the ending coming. The movie is interesting the whole way through and I think that it shows a side of Tom's acting that we don't get to see very often. What I mean is that he actually is a pretty great actor, despite being a real-life nutjob.
See if you agree with me. I can't rate it too terribly high compared to all other movies but I personally believe it is one of Tom's best.
I give this one a "worth watching" rating and a 6.5 / 10