Christmas time is here with happiness and cheer. So what would the holiday season be without some holiday themed movies? I know I personally can’t let a Christmas go by without watching A Christmas Story or Elf once or twice (maybe even the first Lethal Weapon). It should go without saying that these films are already holiday staples, so you really don’t need me to tell you to watch these aforementioned classics.
If you’re like me, you like to shake traditions up a bit, which is why this week I’m recommending Stanley Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut (based upon Arthur Shnitzler’s novella Dream Story). I can’t quite call it a Christmas movie, considering how the holiday is merely a backdrop for the rest of the film. Considering how the strengths and weaknesses of the family bond are the main themes of the film, it only makes sense that a family-oriented holiday season would be used as the time and setting. Thanks to its slow, dreamlike pace and sexually explicit imagery, Eyes Wide Shut becomes Stanley Kubrick’s twisted version of A Christmas Carol: a man who takes his life for granted is visited throughout the night by incidents that could either change his life for better or for worse.
It may seem like centuries ago, but once upon a time, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were once husband and wife. In Eyes Wide Shut they play Bill and Alice Harford, a wealthy and seemingly blissful married couple living in New York City. They have a beautiful daughter and a luxurious home, not to mention a few skeletons in their closet, as many couples do (though most would refrain from admitting so). Upon learning of his wife’s near-affair with another man, Bill is sent on a long, bizarre string of events that run the risk of jeopardizing everything he holds dear. It’s one sex-laced incident after another, and by the end of it all, Bill (as well as the audience) is completely overwhelmed.
Kubrick wants us to acknowledge that even the most picture-perfect marriages are filled with as much strain and hardship as any other marriage. All of Kubrick’s films have an understanding of what sorts of actions people are capable of carrying out in their lives, whether good or evil, and how we are constantly being tempted. I don’t think any of Kubrick’s films capture that issue more universally than Eyes Wide Shut, because marital temptations and complications are faced by couples around the world every single day.
Fair warning: Eyes Wide Shut contains a lot of eye-popping erotic imagery. In fact, it was so sexual in nature that the famous orgy scene had to be digitally altered before the final cut was released. At first glance, it would seem as though the portrayal of nudity in the film is gratuitous, but Kubrick wants the nudity to surprise us and stick in our minds. It’s his way of showing the constant temptation around us, even if its something so base and natural. Nudity is often treated as shocking and perverse, but Kubrick moralizes it and treats it in a realistic manner.
Eyes Wide Shut was made after an absence from the spotlight that lasted over a decade. Kubrick stepped behind the camera one final time to create one of the most polarizing films in his catalog. It’s a difficult film, and even after seeing it a few times I don’t know exactly how to look at it. While I don’t think it’s his best film, it’s definitely one of his most gripping and surreal selections, and it will surely satisfy the most devoted Kubrick fanatic. If you haven’t seen The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey or Dr. Strangelove, I suggest you watch those before venturing into this one. Kubrick was a filmmaker whose work will never be matched by any other director, which makes him an artist through and through.
Happy holidays!
