The Frayed Ends Of Sanity

Open your eyes and see a movie where Penelope Cruz isn't boring

Last night while relaxing I came across a movie I was curious about, Open Your Eyes (1997). I heard of this movie when it was remade by Cameron Crowe, one of my favorite film makers, in Vanilla Sky (2001) starring Tom Crazy I mean Cruise. I tried a few times to sit down and watch Vanilla Sky, but after about 15 minutes I would find myself so bored that I would have to stop. Despite multiple attempts, I could not see what the big deal was except that they closed down Times Square so Tom Ludes could run in a panic through an empty city.

So I sat down and tried to watch the original and found it immediately engaging. The acting was better, I don't know the name of the lead actor but he plays his vain playboy perfectly. Storywise, it follows the wealthy handsome dude Cesar on his birthday as he rejects an obsessive lover named Nuria and picks up on his best friend's girl Sofia. Finally, I got to see what the big deal was about Penelope Cruz as she has a radiance and charm in this film I haven't seen in her other American movies. The jealous Nuria offers Cesar a ride home from Sofia's house and suicidaly crashes the car killing herself and disfiguring Cesar into an Elephant Man. Cesar finds himself shunned and ashamed of his ugliness as Sofia cannot accept the new Cesar, but she has a change of heart and plastic surgeons who could not fix his face find a new method that does. Then, things get weird. In case anyone else sees this movie, I won't give away too much more of the storyline.

I found Open Your Eyes to be an addictive treat. As the movie unfolds in flashbacks while Cesar is in prison for murder, it plays in that scrambled egg you-don't-know-which-way-is-up format that later films like Memento and Muholland Drive got more credit for. The dreamlike style leads the viewer in many directions: Is Cesar insane? Is there a conspiracy against Cesar? Is part of the movie dream and the other part real? Is Cesar hallucinating from drugs or brain damage? These possibilities add to the tension all the way to the ending.

Open Your Eyes is classified as a horror movie and after watching I could see why. It's not a grisly movie though it has some blood, the horror is psychological. Director Alejandro Amenbar puts you in Cesar's shoes for the whole trip and pulls no punches. You feel Cesar's smug self satisfaction at the beginning and his shame and self hatred following the car crash. Vanity, selfishness and bitterness collide as Cesar feels stripped of his identity because he is no longer pretty. What was it Billy Crystal used to say on Saturday Night Live? It's better to look good than to feel good.

There are hints at virtual reality in the movie but in many ways Open Your Eyes is realistic in a very harsh way. As the theme of beauty plays through, Eyes makes it clear that it is not in the eye of the beholder. It's in the eyes of the generally accepted standards of society through which success and happiness become possible. That's a tough message to send and Amenbar brings it in a way that truly cuts to the core. The dual nature of personality comes through as the pure beauty of Sofia and the wicked nastiness of Nuria represent the two sides of Cesar.

I can't say I fully agree with the movie's position, if only to say there is beauty in the way this disturbing and nightmarish film reveals itself. The callous nature with which physical apperance determines identity is scarier than any Freddy Kruger or Ring movie. Maybe I'll give Vanilla Sky another shot. Who knew a movie about Tom Cruise going crazy would be so relevant today?