We Miss You Stanley

Fidelis: A Latin term meaning faithful- fidelio

To understand the sheer genius of Eyes Wide Shut, one must understand the mind of late director Stanley Kubrick. Eyes is the final masterpiece which the he left behind before his sudden demise.

The film is by far not my favorite by Kubrick. Dr. Strangelove, with it's biting satire and wit, earns that title. Yet, Eyes Wide Shut has Kubrick written all over it. It has his unique brand of storytelling, his careful and calculated timing, and the vivid artistry of his earlier films.

One might automatically say Eyes is a film about only sexual obsession. In fact, this is how Kubrick himself described the film, which was released only months after his death.

The film stars Tom Cruise as Dr. William Hartford, a well off and mild mannered individual who is very devoted to his wife Alice (Nicole Kidman) and their daughter. The couple seems happy on the outside, but we can tell trouble is on the horizon.

One night the couple gets into a heated argument about faithfulness in relationships. Alice questions his faithfulness, without having much reason to do so. Bill in return assures her he is confident she is faithful to him since he feels women are not as inclined to cheat while in a marriage.

This causes Alice to erupt and state, "If you men only knew!". She goes on to tell her loving husband how she fantasizes about other men, specifically one gentleman she met while they were on vacation. She tells him she thought about leaving him and their daughter for this mysterious stranger.

This automatically sends Bill into an unbelievable shock. How could his wife think about leaving him? "You're the mother of my child," he pronounces.

The confused Bill now goes wandering around the streets of New York looking for some way to get back at his wife, thinking this will make him feel better. The man eventually refrains from fully cheating on his wife, but he does do a lot of searching. He is picked up by a prostitute, ventures into a dangerous sex cult, and even gets in the middle of a possible murder mystery. Through all of this he never has sex with another woman. His overall love for his wife prevents him from doing that. The very fact he thought about cheating could possibly tear the marriage apart.

The overall film is not as sexual as you might think. For all the controversy the film caused, it is neither as morbid or as risqué as some might believe. The most risqué scene in the film is the sex cult where we see Bill accidentally walk into a room seeing numerous people having sex, in different positions and styles, while others, like himself, stand there and watch. This sex cult episode takes up maybe ten minutes of the two and a half hour film.

The film’s eerie and haunting aspect comes from not only the murder mystery, but also from watching Bill get deeper and deeper into something for which he is not prepared.

Ultimately Eyes Wide Shut is a film about self-discovery, a social commentary about our own desires, and in the end we discover faithfulness is a major aspect of the film.