I am sure I will get some negative comments for saying this. I think Stanley Kubrick is one of the worst directors of English films. The only decent films he made are The Shining and Full Metal Jacket. Personally, I think he was a pretty smart guy. He makes up the plot of these films as he goes along. Just when you think the movie will hit a climax and some resolution will come about, his films simply end. He was probably laughing all the way to the bank. People cannot understand his films. Therefore, he must be a genius. Not for me. I am onto him. The only thing I feel he did correctly is that he always cast popular actors in his films.
The film stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as husband and wife. One night after a party where they were flirting heavily with other people, they are smoking some pot. Nicole confesses that a year ago when they were on vacation she saw a guy that she wanted so badly at that moment she was willing to give up Tom and their daughter just to be with him once. This makes Tom think and over the next few nights he is wandering the streets almost searching for something.
Sounds good, right? Wrong! You forget that this is a Stanley Kubrick film. It winds up making no sense. In his night walks he befriends a hooker, but does not have sex with her. He sneaks into a secret society where they have orgies, but does not indulge. He thinks there was foul play and someone was murdered, but it turns out to not be true. Otherwise it is a good coverup. I am assuming Tom is exploring the sexuality of people without doing it himself. Images of his wife having sex with someone else are consuming his thoughts. The film moves so slowly that I think watching paint dry would be more entertaining. Kubrick introduces all of these plot twists, and then never mentions them again after ten minutes. The music gets on your nerves. It is this piano music that reminds me of a 3 year old child banging on the keyboard. When this film ended I breathed a sigh of relief. However, I wish I could get those 159 minutes of my life back that I wasted watching this film. Not even the actors could save this film.