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01/30/2002 Archived Entry: "Vanilla"

If anything, Vanilla Sky has certainly got one of the best filmed trailers I've seen for a while. It's one of those trailers, set to perfect music, that make you want to find out more about the film. And it's also a trailer which in reality bears pretty much zero resemblance to the actual storyline of the film. Not that this is a bad thing at all, because I suspect that if the trailer showed people what the film was fundamentally about, it would both give away its entire premise and simultaneously reduce its audience quite considerably.

The film starts with our young playboy, David Aames, living the typical laid-back lifestyle and having casual sex with Julie Gianni. One day, David encounters Sofia, and immediately falls in love. Julie goes completely crazy, becomes a stalker and drives herself and David off a bridge. This is not a spoiler - I'm only telling you the first fifteen minutes of the film and you'd see just as much from the trailer.

So the question is, what the hell is the rest of the movie about, then? The trailer makes it seem as if David is being set up for Julie's murder. I can tell you that this is not the case. In fact, you probably can't imagine what the case is. The most I want to say is that it's about how David copes with his life after the car crash, and how he appears to be having problems with his sanity. It'll make you think.

I described this film to a friend of mine as, 'A bit like AI - you'll either love it or hate it. But with Vanilla Sky, other people besides myself also love it.'

I'm not prepared to spoil this movie here, although I'll probably comment on it in a thread on the forums. I'm glad I didn't read any spoilers, as that would have detracted my enjoyment of it by a fair amount. Oh, and it's got great music. I judge a film's music quality by the number of its tracks I download the next day. The usual is one or two. This time, I downloaded five.