If VANILLA SKY doesn’t appeal to mass audiences, the makers only have themselves to blame. While the previews suggested a psychological thriller, the ad campaign should’ve been more informative. The attachment of Cameron Crowe as writer and director only reinforces this need for emphasis. Since Crowe’s background is mainly in quirky romantic comedies, anyone familiar with his work would only expect the same (unless the previews gave them pause). Indeed, he’s branched himself out here nicely, but the structure of this film, and genre even, changes by the end. And without getting too specific, therefore ruining it, VANILLA SKY may not appeal to a wide a number of people because of this, especially if they were expecting the typical Crowe fare. Truth be told, I was one of them. Having Tom Cruise star made it seem like another JERRY MAGUIRE or something. Trailers convinced me otherwise, but I still wasn’t totally prepared. And VANILLA SKY is about as far away from MAGUIRE as you can get. Who knows, maybe that’ll make some of you happy. :-)
Essentially, Crowe offers up his own version of David Lynch here, only with mixed results. The initial banter between characters is just flat and interminable, causing the first hour to really drag. But where everything is leading will undoubtedly take you by surprise. In fact, I enjoyed the ending to VANILLA SKY very much. The problem is in getting there. This very well may be one of those flicks that you have see twice before you can honestly critique it. The tediousness though of the first three quarters just keeps coming back. You can’t shake it, especially when judging the film as a whole. Granted, the story needs time to build, but not as much they took. Making some choice cuts would’ve helped this, but who knows, maybe these scenes contained more clues than I initially picked up on.
Ultimately, I think they miscalculated. Releasing this at Christmas time and with an ineffective ad campaign will only hurt VANILLA SKY’s chances. But like I said, the ending is magnificent and seeing it more than once may just be the thing. I’m certainly willing to give it another shot. :-)
