Stanley Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut, marks the 25th anniversary of the psychological thriller’s theatrical release in 1999.

I meant to watch the film in 2022 when TCM programmed a Kubrick marathon. Unfortunately, months went by and I didn’t get to the film before it was erased off of the YouTube TV DVR. In any event, it’s in the local library collection and I took in a viewing on a cold January evening. For a first viewing, I can say that the film is not an erotic thriller. At least, not in my opinion. Yes, there is an orgy scene but again, it doesn’t feel like an erotic thriller in any way. A psychological thriller is more like it especially with how the film utilizes a recurring leitmotif throughout. It makes for quite a 25th anniversary double feature with American Pie. However, one of these films is not like the other. Anyway, the viewing also makes it the 9th film directed by Kubrick that I’ve seen.

The thing about watching a Kubrick film is that you know what you’re getting from him as a filmmaker. He has his epics and then there are the experimental films and everything that’s in between. There are a number of sci-films that would not even exist without the existence of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Unfortunately, the pacing just falls a bit short for my liking. I suppose I should get back to discussing Eyes Wide Shut at some point. That’s why you’re here, right? Kubrick and co-writer Frederic Raphael adapt a 1926 novella by updating it for the 1990s and moving the setting to New York. Whether the film actually captures the New York environment is in the eye of the beholder.

The gist of the film is that a doctor, William “Bill” Harford (Tom Cruise), is shocked upon learning of his wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman), telling him that she almost had an affair a year earlier. It comes the night after attending Victor Ziegler’s (Sydney Pollack) Xmas party. The revelations do not last long because of Bill rushing off to a patient’s house. Funny enough, Bill finds the patient’s daughter, Marion (Marie Richardson), attempting to seduce him. There’s a meeting with a prostitute but it doesn’t last long. It’s only after meeting middle school classmate Nick (Todd Field) that Bill finds himself going to a mansion. A mansion playing host to an orgy. The film really goes into full thriller mode from here on out especially with the use of music. After Bill apologizes to Alice, one gets the sense of a happy ending.

There’s a universe where Kubrick adapts the film as a sex comedy. Can you imagine watching Eyes Wide Shut with Steve Martin, Bill Murray, or Woody Allen? What a difference that a a few years can make. In the end, Kubrick goes with Tom Cruise, which is quite a departure from his previous intentions.

I do need to talk about the film and the source material. The source material is written by Arthur Schnitzler. Schnitzler has much in common with the protagonist of the 1926 novella, Dream Story. Co-writer Raphael views Fridolin–renamed Howard for the film–as being Jewish. While Raphael is on record as fighting to keep the lead Jewish, Kubrick is notorious for removing any Jewishness from his films. What a shame. It makes one wonder if he was embarrassed to have been born Jewish. I don’t get it. I would fight to keep any references to a character’s Jewishness! His parents did not give him a religious upbringing. The homophobic people that taunt Bill earlier in the film are antisemitic in the book.

Eyes Wide Shut is Kubrick doing Kubrick but it’s not quite a masterpiece compared to earlier works, nor is it an erotic thriller. Maybe another viewing in a few years could change my mind but I went into the film thinking it would be one thing. Instead, what I got was something else. And again, knowing that Kubrick removed any of the novella’s Jewishness is all the more upsetting.

DIRECTOR: Stanley Kubrick
SCREENWRITERS: Stanley Kubrick and Frederic Raphael
CAST: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack, Marie Richardson, Rade Šerbedžija, Todd Field, Vinessa Shaw, Alan Cumming, Sky Dumont, Fay Masterson, Leelee Sobieski, Thomas Gibson, Madison Eginton

Warner Bros. released Eyes Wide Shut in theaters on July 16, 1999. Grade: 3.5/5

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