Written by Stanley Kubrick and Frederic Raphael (screenplay) and Arthur Schnitzler (inspired)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Starring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Todd Field
Running time: 2 hours and 39 minutes
MPAA rating: R for language, nudity, some drug related material strong sexual content 

by Matthew Crump, Alex Rudolph, Ashley Jane Davis, Audrey Callerstrom and Matthew McCafferty

The Tommy C. Appreciation Club, or TCAC, solemnly swears to watch and appreciate all theatrical performances by Tom Cruise then recap them, round-table style. In this edition, the Moviejawn crew embarks on a bonkers holiday adventure with our pal Tommy in Eyes Wide Shut.

Matthew Crump (MC) - I’m not even going to pretend to know what was going on in this movie. The only thing I went in knowing about it was a) it was Kubrick’s last film and b) there would be a sex cult. The only reason I knew that much was because I had a media professor in college who said that our beloved Tommy C’s performance in this film is proof that he is a closeted homosexual. 

Wasn’t he married to Nicole Kidman? Did I make that up? I definitely watched Far and Away in a high school U.S. History class. They have chemistry… I guess? I don’t know if this movie is doing them any favors. I mean, the worst thing Nicole Kidman does is smoke a little too much weed and have a sex dream. Meanwhile, Tommy is running around like a man without a cause, spending thousands of dollars and getting innocent sex cult members killed. 

One detail of Tommy’s chaotic night that I really got hung up on was the costume shoppe. Besides the whole underage daughter mess, remember when the owner asks him what color cloak he wants? Imagine if he was feeling bold and decided to go with red. The whole night would have definitely been ruined a lot sooner. You can’t show up to the orgy wearing the same outfit as the cult leader. Can you say embarrassing? 

I don’t know whether this is a merit of deficit, but I can honestly say that I never had any idea where this movie was going. That part was kind of fun. As for Tommy, do you think this movie proves he’s a gay comma icon or just your standard gay icon? Let me know.

Alex Rudolph - Huh! I don’t think any movie could serve as proof a person is gay but, then, I also don’t think starring in gay porn is proof a person is gay. Take whatever I’m saying with a grain of salt!

What I do think Eyes Wide Shut proves is that Tom Cruise was taking risks in 1999. He was up for starring in a movie where his actual wife plays a screen wife who shatters his sense of himself and his masculinity. In 1996, Tommy reached an even higher movie star tier than he was already on with Jerry Maguire and Mission: Impossible. Those roles-- Gerald Maguire and Ethan Hunt-- are charisma personified. His characters lose control in spectacular fashion and then fight to get it back. And they succeed. Cruise didn’t release another movie for three years, ultimately coming back in 1999 with Magnolia and Eyes Wide Shut. Those are two of the best performances anybody’s ever given and the same person did them in the same year and they’re polar opposites. Both characters are internally collapsed men, but one is loud and flamboyant and rehearsed and the other is financially secure but barely hanging on as he starts to lose his wife and becomes convinced he’s going to lose everything else, too.

So I don’t think Eyes Wide Shut proves Tom Cruise is gay (not that shattered masculinity=gay anyway), but I deeply appreciate that he made a movie that your media professor felt comfortable analyzing from that angle. His sexuality and personal life were being questioned every day in tabloids and he went and made a movie like this! To my mind, it’s on the same level as Daniel Day-Lewis playing a difficult, intensely precise artist who puts everything aside for his work in Phantom Thread.

I’d argue, the only risk Cruise really took after this point was Vanilla Sky, in 2001. Especially post-divorce three, Cruise takes a lot of physical risks-- he straps himself to the sides of planes and breaks his legs falling out of helicopters, but he’s totally closed down emotionally. He’s been great in plenty of movies since Eyes Wide Shut, but he hasn’t been this vulnerable.

It’s also the kind of role you’d think we would be seeing more of from Cruise as he aged. He’s 37 here and it’s one of the last times he’d do anything like this. Can you imagine if he was as adventurous in the past ten years as Nicole Kidman has been? If he was making movies like Rabbit Hole, putting on performances like she does in Big Little Lies? I love the Mission: Impossible movies, but Cruise is like Adam Sandler-- he needs somebody to push him out of his comfort zone. It seems like the only person who can do that is David Miscavige.

I hadn’t seen Eyes Wide Shut in years before watching it for this and, while I remembered liking it, I had forgotten how it’s paced. For a movie that’s now mostly thought of as Tom Cruise Orgy: The Motion Picture, it’s wild that it takes over an hour for the great Todd Field to even mention the orgy to Cruise. For the first hour, it’s 90% themes, 10% plot. And I love it.

Ashley, how did you feel about that plot? Cruise has money but he can’t get to the next level-- he can’t be a Stonecutter (and, before his One Crazy Night, he didn’t even know they existed). And then the illuminati turns out to be creepy (?) and he’s confused. Is there enough there for you, or did Kubrick and co. need to give everything a little more grounding?

Ashley Jane Davis - Remember Pay-Per-View? You could watch movies! At home! On demand! Incredible. I vividly recall secretly ordering this at my grandmother’s house and spending the next 159 minutes, my blood pressure boiling away, with one eye glued to the tv and the other on the hallway in case my grammie came to check on me. I had the volume turned so low, I doubt I even heard much dialogue. This was naughty business for an angelic lil teen like moi. I mostly remember that it left me confused and caused me to have veryyyy interesting dreams, all of which most definitely excluded Tommy C. and the naval officer. 

Rewatching this really drove home the fact that I find it difficult to watch Tommy C. and get lost in his character - to me it’s just Tommy C., and these are the days of his culty life. I’m fascinated that he made this movie, and that S******logy gave him the go-ahead. That being said, this was too much of a glance into their marriage for me. Of course, they are playing roles. My brain understands that. But, why did I feel grossed out when he would touch his wife? Why did I find Tommy C. had more sizzling chemistry with the piano man (whaddya think of that duo, Matt?)? 

Good question, Alex. I love Kubrick movies and, to be honest, I’m okay with not fully understanding them. To me, this film says a lot about class. On the outside, Bill looks like he has everything. Fancy job, fancy place, and a wife to parade around at his fancy parties (I loveee how the parties were shot). Butttt he doesn’t have enough for *this* club. It’s like a millionaire trying to show up at the Billionaire’s Ball. Not gonna cut it, buddy. Bill (?) is likely used to being able to use his charm, looks and charisma to get what he wants, but what about when he has to wear a mask? What then?

Audrey Callerstrom - Yes, Ashley! I love how Tommy (calling him by a name that’s not his own is like - um, no, that’s not “Bill”) can buy his way into getting a costume after close and getting a cabbie to wait for him but he’s not invited to the Big Boy Table. He has a sprawling apartment, his wife doesn’t have to work, they go to lavish parties dressed to the nines. You’d think he could buy his wife a decent snack cookie.

I really like the scene where Tommy is walking the streets of “New York” (actually London, with custom-built street and store signs) late at night, furious and jealous about his wife’s fantasy, and a group of drunk college kids spit at him. They call him f___got and remark “I take dumps bigger than you!” We see and know him as Tom Cruise, megastar, but that’s how a man who looks like Tommy would be treated “in the wild.” Especially after bar close.

Although Tommy is emasculated for almost the entire running time, given that he never undresses, he feels very safe. This is a very naked film.

I like where this film takes you in the span of 24 hours. Scenes are rather long. This film is just like “You’re going to sit there and this scene is going on for a while and you’ll have to get used to it.” I never formed an independent opinion about Kubrick because it’s been a while since I’ve seen his films. When someone you trust tells you a movie is good and you’re 17 and you watch it you are like “OK that was good.”  Like Ashley, I love how the party was shot, especially Kidman dancing with the Hungarian. Ooh boy. They had chemistry. And the way she talks when she’s with him. So breathy. Like, the way she’s talking, her body language, it’s like they’re already having sex.

I would like to thank Kidman for this film’s only (much needed) moment of levity: when she taunts Tommy about his female patients, wondering what they’re thinking when they’re having their “leetle titties squeeeeeeeeezed.” God she’s amazing. 

Matt McCafferty - This was my first official watch of this from beginning to end. I've seen a few random scenes over the years, but I never saw enough to know what was going on. Now that I've seen it...I guess I can say that I know what was going on? It's not a hard plot to follow by any means, but the challenge is more so about figuring out the purpose of each scene. Some scenes serve a specific purpose to move the plot forward, while others are working for more questionable reasons. For example, the scene with Alan Cumming as the desk clerk serves a specific purpose to keep Bill moving along. Specifically, the purpose was for Bill to get information about what happened to Nick Nightingale. Kubrick could have made this interaction quick and to the point. But instead, Cumming and Cruise have a full conversation that has you wondering what else Kubrick is trying to say. This goes back to what Audrey mentioned about every scene being so long. At this point of the movie, you are pretty much used to this style of drawn-out conversation. 

As for Cruise, he is excellent here, as usual. I would have to agree with Alex that I would like to see him take more risks such as this. I love most of his big action blockbuster movies (I even liked The Mummy more than most). But it would be great to see him throw in something a little different every few years or so. 

I also want to comment on what Ashley hit on about what this movie says about class. There are several incidences where Bill pulls out an actual doctor card to get himself out of tough spots. And each time it works. "Oh, you're a doctor. Sure, I can help you out." It was funny to see him lean on the status of his job as his go-to to prove to people that he was worth helping. It felt like a running joke that Kubrick was specifically using to highlight the way Bill viewed himself as someone important no matter what the situation. 

Speaking of jokes, I was surprised at the dark humor that ran through the film. I wouldn't say anything was necessarily laugh out loud funny (except that closing line from Kidman), but I do think Kubrick was trying to inject humor in different ways. It's a twisted sense of humor for sure, but there were plenty of situations that were funny just for the pure absurdity of what was going on. Did anyone else find this surprisingly funny in parts, or was it just me?

Matthew Crump - It most certainly was absurd. Did I find it funny? To be honest, not really. Well- except for the “leetle titties squeeeeeeeeezed” line (thanks for reminding my, Audrey). But even that was the work of Nicole Kidman. She’s truly a blessing.

Sorry Tommy C, but I just did not feel too invested in this protagonist. I found him very unlikable. Which, actually is fine. Some of the most interesting and dynamic protagonists are the most difficult to like. The problem with Bill is he was b-o-r-i-n-g. His motivations were also really flimsy to me.  All of his One Wild Night was born out of a completely made up vision of his wife with a naval officer that was plaguing his mind. Need a therapist much? He is literally a doctor and also extremely rich. I just don’t buy that any of his problems are big enough to constitute any of this behavior.

I said I have no idea what was going on in this movie but perhaps I was fibbing a little bit to set the tone and match the very absurdity that we are all talking about here. My best guess is repressed sexuality. And not in a “Tom Cruise is gay, lol” way. Tom Cruise is a Scientologist, we don’t want him. Although, to answer your question Ashley, would I watch a steamy spin off between him and the pianoman? Absolutely. Should Alan Cumming show up mid-way to deliver room service? God, yes. But no, in actuality, I think this movie is about what it’s like to be straight and repress your sexuality- especially once trapped in the confines of marriage. 

I say “trapped” only because Tommy and Nicole so clearly feel that way. They wanna fuck other people and, listen, that’s okay. It doesn’t mean you need to go find a sex worker who also knows how to use salt to fight off disney witches. What I was anticipating happening, even before I started the movie, was Tommy and Nicole going to the sexy cult orgy together. Two Hollywood A-listers taking a polyamourous night out on the town? Now that would have been interesting. 

Instead, we got the solo story of a deeply sexually frustrated man always on the brink of being bad, but pulling out (no pun intended) at the last second so he could maintain his inflated sense of morality and be dismissed of any charges on a technicality. Tommy couldn’t decide whether he wanted to be good or bad in this movie, when all he really needed to do was go home and talk to his wife. And buy her a better goddamn snack cookie.

TL;DR— Nicole Kidman deserves better.

Alex Rudolph - THANK YOU, Matthew. I knew the sex worker looked familiar but couldn’t place her. Trying not to look at my phone during movies, which is mostly good but sometimes it means you can’t do light research on an actor’s entire filmography when their face makes your brain twitch.

The one thing I really want to push back on here is the cookies. SnackWell’s Devil’s Food cookies were very good and I would eat a whole box right now. Also, a different type of cookie would shred the Nabisco meta-narrative all of us surface-level viewers missed in Kubrick’s filmography.

I do think the movie is funny. The whole costume store bit, the first time around, made me laugh out loud, and that humor helps make it that much creepier the second time around. It’s so heightened and combative and then, when Tommy returns, we’re left wondering what sucked the air out of the room. I think that speaks to how openly emotional it is. Kubrick’s movies can be so cold and detached-- movies about emotions that are not themselves emotional. But the acting here is a little more earnest across the board.

I don’t find Cruise’s character likable and I don’t empathize with him but, as a viewer, I’m gripped by his need to figure out what the hell is going on. I’m happy to be locked in his character’s nightmare for three hours.

Because, and this also ties in with the emotion, parts of Eyes Wide Shut creep the shit out of me in ways Kubrick’s other movies don’t. Everything he made has elements of horror, but even the explicitly genre stuff isn’t scary. I think the blood pouring out of the elevator in The Shining is a neat visual concept, but I’m not unsettled by it. But that orgy gets under my skin, specifically the looooong introduction. The incense, the chanting, the music, especially the slamming sound every time that staff hits the floor-- it’s creepy. Maybe Eyes Wide Shut’s endless parodying in pop culture disarmed me this time around, but my mental image of that scene was more in line with, say, Andy Daly’s Review than it was with that opulent castle. And then being able to match that tone with Sydney Pollack’s sleazy rich character is a little unnerving. (Side-note: Wild that this movie gets two great performances out of great directors. Sydney Pollack was already a legend, but Todd Field hadn’t yet made In The Bedroom.)

When people who had been at Pollack’s party at the beginning are walking around the toy store at the end, it’s a subtle little scare that complicates the Nicole Kidman punchline right before the credits. I hadn’t noticed them until they were pointed out, and their presence blunts the joke, if it doesn’t kill it completely.

Your relationship with Tommy’s sniveling, insecure weirdo character aside, did the rest of the movie envelop you enough to elicit a response? Or was his unlikability too front-and-center and overwhelming to the whole thing? (No judgment either way!)

Ashley Jane Davis - The movie as a whole definitely pulled me in. Yet I admit, I did spend a lot of time wondering what it would have been like to live through the scenes with Kidman’s perspective. It makes me think of the poster. Tommy C. is going in for the kiss, and Kidman is looking at us. I wonder what she is thinking, what she is feeling. What is she up to while Tommy C. is running around the city trying his damndest to be Dr. Sex Cult? 

It doesn’t seem to mean a thing to be a woman in this world. Women are stripped bare, shamed, used, abused, criticized and well… worse. I think what I would like to see is this film done in the same way, but through the eyes of Kidman, or another woman, instead of following Tommy C. and wondering “is he gonna do it, or not?”

Oh, and I need this piano man spinoff, stat.

Audrey Callerstrom - This film is darkly funny. The utter seriousness of the cult intro scene makes me giggle, as well as anyone telling you something intended to be scary while wearing a non-scary mask. Remember when they decided that Green Goblin in the first Spider-Man was just going to talk behind a mask? And how that didn’t really work? Well, take that, but now the woman is naked and she’s telling you you are in “grave danger.” OK. Uh, sure. I’ve seen Tommy run. He’ll be fine. Oh, and that zoom in on Mandy, “stop! Take me!” It’s all supposedly performative, according to the Pollack character. But it’s never remotely threatening. It’s intentionally campy.

One thing I’d be curious for someone to share their input on - why did Kubrick make Alice and Bill parents? The child never remotely factors into the story. And in the end, I think she’s completely run off or been kidnapped as they discuss their marriage at a fake FAO Schwarz.

Matt McCafferty - Audrey, that's a good question about them being parents. My guess is that Kubrick wanted to increase the weight of their decisions by adding a kid into the story. Bill is wrecking his family with his night out instead of just the relationship with his wife. Maybe that's too simple of an explanation but, like you mentioned, the daughter never really plays into their conversations for us to figure out her purpose. She's just there. 

It's also possible (although probably unlikely) that Kubrick had a plan for the daughter to be included more into the story, but other more important scenes took up too much time. It all goes back to those long conversations! I can't picture Kubrick caring much about runtime, but two hours and thirty-nine minutes is pretty long the way it ended up. And I read that he submitted a longer version to Warner Bros., but they cut out a bunch of scenes. I think a lot of those scenes were explicit and were cut by the studio to get it to be R-rated.

Even though I liked this movie quite a bit, I still came away feeling a bit disappointed by it. I think this mostly stems from the high expectations that I set going into it. This movie has been on my list for a while to see. Along with all of the praise that I've heard about it over the years, I also remember reading something that said Kubrick referred to this as the best film he ever made. I'm not sure what his actual quote was, but that stuck with me leading up to my watch. However, I can think of three or four of his films that I would immediately rank above this. I guess my own internal hyping got in the way for me a little bit. 

Check out Eyes Wide Shut for yourself - find where it is playing here.

The Tommy C. Report Card was completed by Alex Rudolph, Matthew Crump, Ashley Jane Davis, Matthew McCafferty, Hunter Bush and Allison Yakulis. The final score reflects an average of all report cards completed by TCAC and is taken extremely seriously...which is to be expected.

Come back next month when the Tommy C. Club discusses a flick perfect for your holiday watch list, Magnolia.