USA/United Kingdom
directed by: Stanley Kubrick
written by: Stanley Kubrick, Frederic Raphael + Arthur Schnitzler (book)
starring: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Alan Cumming
seen: 18th June, 2009, additional comment: 22nd October, 2018
2009: This film takes a completely separate route (from my imaginary life travels, if that makes any sense). And I'm quite inclined to say nothing will ever bring us together. I don't feel like an adult just yet, but my concept of adulthood differs greatly from the vision provided by Kubrick here.
2018: Oh gosh darn it, I'm gonna have to watch it again in ten years time because I am still not experienced enough to understand what this film is about. (Let alone to define if it's done clumsily or masterfully.)
I am able to savor (more than before) the way Kubrick torments Cruise, but I mean literally the director and the actor, because I don't have a clue what the character is going through. The only thing (apart from the vague realization that I tend to forget at times that Nicole is capable of being an actress-goddess) that makes sense to me and can help me orient myself in the map of this film is the short étude performed so effortlessly by Alan Cumming: the between-the-lines expression of feelings that can never be reciprocated.
My confusion is best illustrated by the final dialogue, where I'm terribly bothered that while Nicole says "the important thing is we're awake now", Tom's expression on the other hand says that he's either never fallen asleep or that he'll never wake up, in short that he's learned nothing during his journey.
