Eyes Wide Shut tells the story of Dr. Bill Harford (Tom Cruise), and his wife Alice (Nicole Kidman). Bill is a well-to-do doctor, catering to rich client's in New York's wealthiest areas. He and Alice live in a gorgeous condo with their daughter. As the film opens, they're preparing to go to a Christmas party thrown by one of Bill's best patients, Victor Zeigler (Sydney Pollack). Over the course of the night, both Bill and Alice get propositioned sexually. This unnerves Alice, although Bill seems nonplussed. The next day, a discussion of these events culminates in Alice describing to Bill a moment of sexual weakness that she never in fact acted upon. However, the merest hint that his wife could even think about another man is enough to send Bill into an existential crisis, rethinking the entire state of his marriage and what it means to love someone.

As you can see, Eyes Wide Shut is a film about sex, not a film depicting sex. While many directors have titillated audiences with lavishly erotic productions, very few have been willing to examine the psychology of sexuality, and how it relates to our relationships. Bill and Alice play a couple married for a decade, and that alone should set the tone for the picture. This is not a film about young love or lust. These are two people who have seen each other, day in and day out, for over ten years. While they certainly still have affection and an attraction to each other, they don't burn with the same intensity they had when they were younger. Why else would a man willingly walk away from Nicole Kidman? Kubrick goes out of his way to show how strikingly gorgeous she is, but she's almost entirely absent for a good portion of the middle of the film.

Much has been made of the fact that Cruise and Kidman were married when they made this film. They themselves had been together for many years and had several children. They spent over a year in England making the film with Kubrick, doing take after take of emotionally draining scenes. Whether or not this had an impact on their divorce is anyone's guess, but it does add dimension to what we're seeing on the screen. The two are comfortable with each other, sometimes to the point of not even seeing the other person for who they are. When the sparks fly, though, you can feel an undercurrent of competition between the two. There's a tug of war not just between one actor and another, but within each one. Say what you will about Kubrick's incessant perfectionism, but the technique delivered in droves when it came to the performances of his two leads.

Eyes Wide Shut is based on the book Traumnovelle by Arthur Schnitzler. Tellingly, the title of that book translates into "Dream Story," and that should tell us all we need to know. Much of Eyes Wide Shut is more than likely a dream. Where the dream ends and reality begins is anyone's guess. In fact, this may not matter, as both the original novel and the film itself suggest that dreams have a power equal to or greater than the events we actually live through. This would explain a great deal of the film's sequences, which often feel like a series of increasingly bizarre male fantasies. The fact that Bill may not in fact actually have lived these moments does not diminish their potency, their hold over him, or the way that it affects his perception of his marriage. In fact, the heightened sense of emotion and sensuality that we feel in dreams may make them more lasting than if Bill had experienced them in reality. We rarely see a filmmaker willing to make a film so open-ended without going the route of outright surrealism.

Dreams play an important role in the film. In a pivotal scene, Bill returns home from a night of frustrated sexual exploration (more on that later) to discover Alice crying out in her sleep. When he wakes her, she recounts a vivid dream with sexual overtones that, while differing in the particulars, strikes a little too close to home for Bill's comfort. Earlier, during the party that begins the whole affair, Bill is propositioned by two comely models. They offer to take him "Where the rainbow ends," most certainly a reference to The Wizard of Oz, cinema's most famous dream-based movie. The visual style is decidedly dream-like. Set at Christmas time, the scores of Christmas lights glow with an unearthly luminescence. Due to Kubrick's fear of flying, large sections of New York were reconstructed on London sound stages. The effect is noticeable and decidedly not realistic.

The very structure of the film recalls a dream. Aside from a few of the more mundane domestic scenes, most of the sequences of the film are islands, self-contained and only tangentially linked to the others. Dreams move the same way, forcing you to focus on the here and now instead of what has come before or anticipate what could come later. This, of course, culminates in the infamous orgy sequence. Even without any other supporting evidence, this section alone would be enough for me to make the argument that much of the film is not taking place in the waking world. The sequence is so gothic, so draped in mystery and foreboding, that I can't imagine it was meant to be taken literally. Are we really meant to believe that the world's richest men put on cloaks and Amadeus-looking party masks in order to watch people have sex? If people took it at face value, that would explain many of the bad reactions. The orgy is the ultimate wet dream: Massive, seething, and anonymous.

The film takes a seemingly odd turn after Bill finds himself forcibly evicted from the party. Instead of focusing on Bill and Alice's relationship, it becomes a murder mystery. Bill is determined to discover who is behind the events he witnessed. This also leads him to retrace many of his steps, which look decidedly different in the light of day. This may not make much sense from a plotting standpoint, but from an emotional point of view, it's essential. The "detective story" can be seen as Bill's attempt to submerge the massive intake of sexual input he's received by diverting his attention into something else entirely. It's a very Freudian moment. However, try as he might, he can't escape the consequences (whether real or imagined) of his escapades, which winds down into the film's final moments, where Bill discovers that perhaps not all is lost.

As I've tried to suggest, Kubrick has crafted a deeply complex and highly psychological film. The impact of this cannot be had in a single sitting. Kubrick advanced the art of storytelling with many of the pictures he has made, and Eyes Wide Shut is, in its way, as bold as A Clockwork Orange or 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's a testament to the greatest filmmaker the world has ever seen, and a fitting farewell. Eyes Wide Shut was hyped, despised, debated, and I believe will eventually go through a reappraisal as time separates the piece from the prevailing attitudes of the period. Eyes Wide Shut is a daring, vibrant work, and the fact that you have to struggle to get to its riches only makes it all the more worthwhile. Thank you Stanley, it's been wonderful.

The HD DVD:

The Image:
Warner Bros. presents Eyes Wide Shut in a 1.78:1 VC-1 encoded 1080p transfer. This is the first time any home video release of Eyes Wide Shut has been made in widescreen, due to Kubrick's request that the initial DVD release be full-frame (open matte). Kubrick shot Eyes Wide Shut using source lighting, that is, light from objects on the set. You may notice a preponderance of holiday lights, and aside from setting the mood, it was a practical concern. The film was pushed two stops when it was processed as well, to get the most out of the available lighting. The final image is therefore very diffuse and grainy. While this certainly enhances the dreamy atmosphere Kubrick was clearly going for, it does not lend itself to a strong HD presentation.

But as I've said many a time before, the purpose of HD should be to present us with the director's vision, not dazzle us with clarity that shouldn't always be there. This is how Eyes Wide Shut is meant to look, and I for one am thankful that WB respected the artistic integrity of Kubrick's vision. And Warner has finally made available Kubrick's original cut, which has the uncensored orgy sequence (no actual cuts were made to achieve an R rating, instead WB digitally inserted cloaked figures into the frame to block out various sexual acts). The case lists both cuts as being available, but I was not able to find a way to access the R version. Considering that the R version was never representative of what Kubrick wanted, I can't say it's any great loss.

The Audio:
To this day, Woody Allen makes his current films in stereo, and many of his older works were in mono. Kubrick was himself a Woody Allen fan, and perhaps he took some cues from a fellow New Yorker. The sound design on Eyes Wide Shut is a surround mix in name only, although WB is nice enough to provide us with a Dolby True HD 5.1 track. Aside from the score, the rears are almost never used. Just about the only time you hear any bass is during the ritual before the orgy, and even that is less than impressive. On the other hand, the dialogue is well recorded and sounds great. I had no trouble hearing any of the actors, even when Nicole Kidman tries to play a drunk.

The Supplements:
Eyes Wide Shut will for the foreseeable future be overshadowed by Kubrick's untimely demise. The supplements on this disc prove that, as not a single new piece of material has been shot to dissect and analyze the film. While this is certainly a shame, we do get some amazing first time footage of Kubrick's family in a new documentary. None of the special features are in high definition.

• The Last Movie - Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut: Despite the title's suggestion, there is very little discussion of Eyes Wide Shut to be found. However, I can hardly complain when this documentary offers up the first footage from Kubrick's home aside from a few home movies he himself shot. Kubrick's wife and daughters are interviewed, and are shown at home. They reminisce about him, often somewhat tearfully. Many of his collaborators are interviewed, including Brian Aldiss, author of the short story on which A.I. was based. The documentary spends more time talking about that film than it does about Eyes Wide Shut. The most we get about that movie comes from period interviews with Cruise and Kidman.

  Several other directors, such as John Boorman and Steven Spielberg, discuss their relationships with Stanley and the effect his movies had on them. Spielberg in particular has a lot to say about Stanley. The two were friends for many years, and he has several delightful anecdotes, as well as more contemplative moments. The only flaw in the piece is a tendency towards awkward visual transitions that do not befit the legacy of a master filmmaker. Still, it's hard to deny the raw emotion on display, especially at the end. A touching tribute.

• Lost Kubrick - The Unfinished Films of Stanley Kubrick: This feature, narrated by A Clockwork Orange's Malcolm McDowell, focuses on the three great "lost" pictures of Kubricks career: Napoleon, The Aryan Letters, and A.I. While A.I. has had the most buzz, due to it being the last unfinished project and also thanks to Spielberg's attempt at bringing it to the screen, fans of the director will know that Napoleon was the most massive loss of Kubrick's career. Kubrick was obsessed with Napoleon, and spent years and years researching every aspect of his life. At one point he had a system of file cards, each card representing a day in Napoleon's life, each with a description of what he did on that particular day. The project fell apart due to the financial failure of another Napoleon-based film, and Kubrick left MGM after the fiasco, finally going to Warner Bros, where he stayed until the end of his days. Recent interviews with people slated to work on the films brings new information to light on all three projects.
• Interview Gallery: The only extras from the 1999 DVD, these are period interviews with Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and Steven Spielberg. They all give honest accounts of the man they loved and admired. Kidman is the standout, as she holds nothing back.
• D.W. Griffith Award Acceptance Speech: Kubrick received the D.W. Griffith Award from the Director's Guild of America in 1998, but was on the set of Eyes Wide Shut at the time (and the chances he would have left England to come to California just for an award is unlikely). He taped an acceptance speech to be shown at the ceremony, and now we get to see it as many times as we like.
• Trailers and TV Spots.

The Conclusion:
Eyes Wide Shut is a misunderstood final work from cinema's premiere master. Stanley Kubrick crafted a tale of such subtlety and power that it will only unfold its secrets to active audience members willing to put in the effort. That Kubrick's death would overshadow his final film was inevitable, but time will allow Eyes Wide Shut to reveal its strengths to an ever-widening audience. While this HD DVD doesn't have the strongest audio or video, what it does have is a reproduction of Kubrick's intentions. It's the first release in widescreen and to have the unrated cut of the film. When you add in a documentary that features the first footage from the Kubrick estate, you start to see how important this package is, both from a cinematic and historical point of view. Highly Recommended.

Daniel Hirshleifer is the High Definition Editor for DVD Talk.