Product Description

Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar's surreal psychological suspenser (remade by director Cameron Crowe as "Vanilla Sky") stars Eduardo Noriega as a handsome lothario who accepts a ride home from a jealous ex-flame. The trip ends in a crash that kills the woman and leaves Noriega's face hideously scarred, but his troubles are only beginning as the lines between illusion and reality, between life and death, are blurred. Penelope Cruz, Najwa Nimri also star. 117 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: Spanish Dolby Digital stereo; Subtitles: English. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17194 in DVD
• Brand: CRUZ,PENELOPE
• Released on: 2001-08-21
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: Spanish
• Subtitled in: English
• Dimensions: .26 pounds
• Running time: 117 minutes

Amazon.com
Imagine if an actor's director like Eric Rohmer--whose films consist almost entirely of conversation between pairs or small groups of people--made a film that incorporated elements from movies like Dark City, eXistenZ, The Thirteenth Floor, The Truman Show, and Total Recall. The result might resemble Alejandro Amenabar's remarkable second feature, Open Your Eyes, which favors ideas over effects and offers twist upon twist with mind-warping agility. This film rewards multiple viewings, pushing the viewer toward one perception of reality, then switching to another until reality itself is called into question. Melodrama, love story, and psychological thriller combine with a dash of science fiction, forming a plot that is both disorienting and deceptively precise.

Set in Madrid, the story defies description, but this much can be revealed: young, handsome Cesar (Eduardo Noriega) is vain, rich, charming, and--following a botched suicide-murder scheme by a jilted lover--horribly disfigured. He'd fallen in love with Sofia (Penélope Cruz) but is now an embittered husk of his former self, stuck in a "psychiatric penitentiary" on a murder charge and hiding behind an expressionless mask. His reality has crumbled, but as the film's agenda is gradually revealed, we realize that there are other factors in play. Exposing that agenda would be a criminal offense against those who haven't seen the film; suffice it to say that Open Your Eyes takes you into the twilight zone and beyond, and does so cleverly enough to prompt Tom Cruise to produce and star in an English-language remake, Vanilla Sky. The 2001 remake, directed by Cameron Crowe, costars Cameron Diaz and Penélope Cruz, who reprises her original role. --Jeff Shannon