• Starring: Penélope Cruz, Tom Cruise
  • Summary: Snowboarding through life, David Aames (Cruise) appears to lead a charmed life. In one night David meets a girl of his dreams and loses her by making a small mistake. Thrust unexpectedly onto a roller-coaster ride of romance, comedy, suspicion, love, sex and dreams, David finds himself on a mind-bending search for his soul and discovers the precious, ephemeral nature of true love. (Paramount Pictures) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 33
  2. Negative: 9 out of 33
  1. A mostly fascinating, often frustrating, boldly uncommercial Hollywood version of a boldly uncommercial art film. It's very atypical of the previous work of both director and star, and it's as personal a film, I suspect, as Cruise will ever make.
  2. It reeks of unearned profundity, but I found it entertaining.
  3. The title doesn't hint at the unsavory mess the film actually is.

See all 33 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 71 out of 94
  2. Negative: 18 out of 94
  1. I disagree with many 'reviewers' and feel that this version is a much more polished movie than the original spanish movie. The soundtrack is amazing and the suspense is real. An amazing achievement by Crowe. Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  2. MichaelL
    5
    A film which makes an attempt to pattern itself on the fantasy vs. reality films that had become popular at the turn of the new millennium - David Fichner's "Fight Club" and M. Night Shamalan's "Sixth Sense" both from 1999, Christopher Nolan's "Momento" from 2000, and David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" released the following year (all of which don't surpass the reigning king of this genre when Terry Gilliam released his 1985 masterpiece "Brazil") - by no means fails in this respect since I found it both entertaining and intriguing for the most part, but is noticeably long and certainly may confuse the average '2hr-max-movie-goer'. Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz both stand out playing their respective, 'good gal/bad gal roles and Jason Lee is quite appealing as the best friend of our dashing lead Tom Cruise. Yet Cruise may be viewed as stretching this performance given the physical challenges that are demanded. I hesitate to reveal these challenges to those that have not seen the picture as they are indeed the focal point of the plot. Many good things like the witty Cameron Crowe retrospective soundtrack that is weaved into clever culture references and tributes which are indeed enjoyable and even necessary to solve the riddle presented in 'what's is going on?' scenario of the main character's pressing dilemma which may not be easy to access with a single viewing. But still the ride can be entertaining as Tom runs away and into trouble as he often does in quasi-action films that are laced with mystery and intrigue like Sydney Pollack's 1993 "The Firm", Brian De Palma's 1996 "Mission Impossible" and even the more cerebrally dark, "Eyes Wide Shut" from Stanley Kubrick. As noted by many educated critics as well as the tasteless tabloids Mr. Cruise may be biting off more than he can chew as he dives into the land of independent production. I applaud Tom for his efforts and are rooting for his 'comeback' yet do believe that his choice for future roles should include a return to comedic territory as a deviation/diversion to selecting elaborate/complicated efforts which could be prove a bit too risky and result in a poor reception at the box office. Expand
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  3. Anima
    3
    Well, before giving it a good rating, you gotta see the original ("Abre Los Ojos" by Alejandro Amenabar). Hate to disappoint you guys, but this one is total crap.. Unless you are one of those people without imagination, and you like all the answers being given to you, lefting no place for you to think, you should stay away from this remake. (Sorry for my English, I've only learned it at school :) ). Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 94 User Reviews

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