Vanilla Sky/Abre Los Ojos

Vanilla Sky, made in 2001, directed by Cameron Crowe and starring Tom Cruise, is a remake of the Spanish thriller Open Your Eyes or Abre los Ojos and its American remake directed Cameron Crowe, one of my favorite directors, and starring Tom Cruise.  

For this entry I would like to look at both films, highlighting their similarities and some of the unique aspects of both.  As always I will be discussing the films in detail.  Some film fans despise remakes, especially American remakes of European thrillers arguing that the American versions have bigger budgets but lose some of the intimacy of the original film.

A famous example was the film The Vanishing, a film about a young man searching for his lost girlfriend.  I saw the American remake starring Kiefer Sutherland first and I felt it was intriguing through the ending seemed a bit implausible.  The Dutch original, ended about 15 minutes earlier and was much darker.  Oddly both were directed by the same man, George Sluizer, and both films follow the same beats, though the American version tells much of the story from the villain’s point of view.  The Dutch version ends up being about the price of obsession whereas the American film ends up feeling like a slasher film due to its tacked on climax.

However I am not at all opposed to the idea of American remakes of European films.  I probably would never have heard of the Vanishing or Abre Los Ojos without the existence of the remakes and if I enjoy a film I am more than happy to see another version of it.

In the 80s and especially the 90s as films became more expensive Hollywood executives wanted happy, even comical endings, to all films, even dark ones.  The idea was that if people walk out of a theatre happy that would lead to better box office returns.  European films, a little less obsessed with mass commercial appeal and lower budgeted, are less risky and can afford to tell a dark story with an unhappy ending if called for.  Also I think Europeans are raised with more complex literature and perhaps have a higher tolerance for edgy stories.

In 2001 Tom Cruise was near the height of his popularity.  He and Cameron Crowe had collaborated on Jerry Maguire a few years earlier and that film had been an enormous hit.  Crowe’s films usually dealt with young men finding some maturity through an experience or a test and his women characters were pretty memorable.  Crowe and Cruise’s shared enthusiasm for cinema made them natural partners and in the late 90s Cruise screened the film Abre Los Ojos for Crowe and the two decided to make their own version.

I have a soft spot for Cameron Crowe.  Say Anything is the best teen romance I have ever seen and Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous are beautiful films that almost explode with joy.  Elizabethtown was a bit of a misstep, a little too self-indulgent, but had some good scenes, particularly the climactic road trip.  We Bought a Zoo was a nice film, targeted a little more toward children.   

I think these two films are a case of a remake honoring an original while also taking it in a different direction.  They tell the same story and have many of the same scenes, characters and dialogue but the Crowe version is a much bigger film with longer scenes. As Crowe is an expert on American rock history Vanilla Sky is loaded with songs that thematically match the action onscreen, or in the Cruise character’s head.

Both films are about a rich, handsome, charismatic but selfish orphan (named Cesar and played by Eduardo Noriega in the original and David, played by Tom Cruise in the remake) who lives a bit irresponsibly and is a womanizer.  There is the sense that he treats women the way he does in part to dull his own pain at the loss of his parents.  One of the women, the only one the audience really meets but it is clear that there are others, becomes obsessed with him.  This becomes dangerous when Cesar/David spends a single evening with a girl named, Sofia, played by Penelope Cruz in both versions.  Seemingly Sofia could inspire him to grow up but she had been on a date with Cesar’s and David’s average looking best friend (Pelayo played by Fele Martinez in the original and Brian played by Jason Lee-who played a supporting role in Crowe’s film Almost Famous the year before), at the time they met, further complicating matters.  The obsessed girl, Nuria, played by Najwa Nimri in the original and Julie, played by Cameron Diaz in the remake, ends up coaxing Cesar/David into a car with the promise of hot sex and then crashes the car hoping to kill both of them.  Nuria/Julie dies and Cesar/David’s face is permanently disfigured.  From here the film takes some unique turns in both the real and dream worlds.

Differences between the two versions:

Abre Los Ojos is more compact in scope.  It is a little thriller that links dreams with science fiction and obviously has a small budget.  The running time is under two hours.  Vanilla Sky is big budget film that tells an epic tale of a man’s nightmares forcing him to grow into a better version of himself.  The love story is supposed to a Romeo and Juliet type tale and most of the key scenes are much longer and the film runs about two hours and 16 minutes.

For example, in the opening dream sequence Cesar discovers he is driving through downtown Madrid and appears to be all alone.  He gets out of the car on Gran Via in Madrid and the scene cuts as Cesar starts to run through.  In Vanilla Sky David drives down Broadway from the Upper West side in Manhattan next to Central Park and gets all the way to Times Square (about 35 blocks) and then the audience sees David run at full blast, apparently in a full panic, through the square with images from the various screens flashing, indicating they are flashing through his head.  A similar effect occurs when David smothers Sofia late in the film, and again in the finale when David jumps off the building.

In Abre Los Ojos the scene leading up to the car crash is quick. Nuria takes a drug that combined with Cesar’s indifference to her seems to lead into the impulsive decision to crash the car.  Julie and David have an extended scene in which David senses the danger as Julie starts to act unstable and he first starts to calm her down and then panics as he recognizes the danger.  Vanilla Sky’s scene fully explains Julie’s motivations but in the end Abre Los Ojos’ scene is more realistic, I believe.

The birthday party in Abre Los Ojos only seems to have a few people around and Cesar does not talk to anyone except Pelayo, Sofia and Nuria.  In Vanilla Sky, due to David’s status as a publisher of a magazine, the party is a huge event with even Steven Spielberg dropping by. 

In Abre Los Ojos only Cesar’s face is hurt in the crash but in Vanilla Sky David’s jaw is also wired, causing him to mumble.  Additionally David has migraines and his right arm is injured, leading to a bit of a stooped walk.  This has an effect on the audience perception of Cruise as he is often shown in films running at full speed and extremely coordinated and athletic.

Cesar comes off as less sympathetic throughout.  He is nasty to anyone who annoys him, he has no qualms about pursuing his best friend’s date.  Cesar has slept with Nuria twice and clearly thinks of her as nothing more than a disposable lover.  David, played by the at the time, the biggest star in the world whose appeal is based on charm and smiling a lot, in the early scenes at least in his own mind considers Julie a friend with benefits and every time he talks to her in the early part of the film he is making some effort to be polite.  David is irresponsible and self-centered but not cruel.  In fact he has given a contract to Brian to help him with his novel and has retained the attorney played by Timothy Spall out of loyalty to his late father.  David is far more self-aware of his own irresponsibility than Cesar.  As the film proceeds into the darkest recesses of the dream and David’s behavior is more shocking than Cesar who seems capable of it throughout.

Cesar turns 25 in his big birthday and David turns 33, a huge difference in terms of maturity and awareness of your effect on others.  Both are overgrown children but David’s lack of control over his career and life seem a bit pathetic at his age.  Cruise’s interest in the part necessitated making David older, (he was about 38 during filming but easily gets away with shaving a few years off) but it also allows for a Christ parallel since David is tortured, dies and is resurrected.  The name David is also biblical.

The key scene, in which Cesar/David, unknowingly gives up his chance at a relationship with Sofia, by getting into the car with Nuria/Julie, is staged the same but some key dialogue illustrates the characters’ differences.  Nuria dares Cesar to get into the car whereas Julie manipulates David into feeling guilty for not inviting her to the party.  In Abre Los Ojos, I buy it since Cesar just kind of goes along with it since it is the easier path for him, and besides he is always up for a good romp.  Once in Nuria’s car he barely looks at her and seems to be trying to catch a little sleep.  For David, who has pledged in Sofia’s apartment to grow up and start taking all aspects of his life more seriously, the transition to Julie’s car is more of a leap.  In David’s scene since in his mind Julie is a friend, he actually confides a little about his feelings for Sofia to Julie but although Cruise sells David’s overall temptation to get in the car (his face becomes eager for another sexual adventure with Julie) the writing for the whole situation does not support him.  David easily resisted Julie earlier at the party when she was naked in his room and afterwards referred to her as a stalker.  At this point Julie has followed David to Sofia’s apartment (maybe she found out where Sofia lives from Brian and came later) and waited for him for hours, which is pretty disturbing.  I would think David would just want to get away from Julie even more than before.  Besides, having the opportunity for a relationship with Sofia and still feeling high from it as he walked out the door, would probably make the idea of meaningless (to David) sex with Julie seem pretty unappealing.

I also wonder why does Cesar/David, who is standing in front of his own car, get into Nuria/Julie’s?  Presumably he could have just followed her to Nuria/Julie’s apartment (or in the case of Julie, wherever they were going next).  Obviously the film needs Cesar/David in that car for the crash but if his own car is working fine, apart from the inconvenience of having to later ask for a ride from your stalker, Sofia would probably notice the car is there and at some point Cesar/David would have to explain it.  A skilled womanizer such as he would be a little more careful in those moments.

In Abre Los Ojos Cesar sees Sofia as a mime in the park before meeting her at his birthday party, which explains how he knows how to find her later.

Vanilla Sky put more emphasis on the company that David inherited and is running (with a board doing most of the work) in an attempt to live up to his late father’s legacy (a common theme in Cruise films-Top Gun, A Few Good Men), adding the Timothy Spall character.  I think the scenes with David thinking the corporation is somehow responsible for replacing Sofia with Julie are a bit absurd.

Although Penelope Cruz is playing the same character in both films, (a nice link between the two as Cruz  became a big name in the U.S. in the period between the making of the two films thanks to Pedro Almodovar’s film, All About My Mother, which received a wide release in the U.S.),  Cruz adds a few wrinkles to Sofia in the later film (or Crowe’s script does).  Sofia is more of a dreamlike character in Abre Los Ojos, always exactly where Cesar seems to need her to be and playing completely off of him.  She looks like a model all the time with perfect hair and a lot of makeup. In Vanilla Sky Sofia is more energetic, the kind of person who smiles a lot and that people would enjoy being around.  She dresses much more casually in Vanilla Sky and her apartment is messy.  Sofia is a mime and struggling actress in Abre Los Ojos and a ballet dancer, among other things, in Vanilla Sky.

One of the key differences in how Sofia is portrayed lies in the scenes following the accident.  Cesar follows Sofia into a park where she is performing as a mime, and stares at her first from his car and then standing in front of her, seemingly for a few hours and then confronts her for not calling him.  This is a bit creepy and the audience can certainly agree why Sofia would want to stay away from Cesar.  In Vanilla Sky David, a little older than Cesar in his film, watches Sofia from a distance as she greets a few friends (the enthusiasm with which she does so indicates that she is in good spirits in her life and that David is not really on her mind-though she seems to sense something as she looks around a couple of times) and then approaches her at her studio, a semi-public place.  He behaves more charmingly and Sofia seems more receptive to him, if not open (her attraction to him is certainly gone but she seems to still care for him, even voluntarily giving him a kiss on the cheek) and it is a little curious why Sofia suddenly does not want to be near him at the club, though perhaps the late night call he makes to her while watching Benny the dog on Conan O’Brien might have something to do with it (in 2001 Conan’s show was on at 12:35 and a guest like that would have not been on until around 1:15 or so) .  Also, perhaps Sofia later figured out that David was following her. 

The Nuria/Julie character is portrayed differently in each film.  Nuria looks like a wounded soul, speaks softly and is not terribly attractive.  Julie is played by the gorgeous Cameron Diaz who used to be a model and is often portrayed as a woman desired by many men, most notably in There’s Something About Mary.  Julie does not have a great sense of style, is lower class (she wears older clothes and drives a 1970 Buick Skylark) and thus in David’s eyes she is not an appropriate guest for David’s highbrow birthday party especially since she would consider herself his date.  However Brian, who also is not rich is a guest, perhaps because Brian is David’s best friend and also perhaps to help further Brian’s career-Brian could meet other publishing contacts there and he is writing a novel.  Diaz uses her big eyes and wide smile to an unnerving effect.  As an audience member I never feel comfortable in the Julie scenes, which comes to a head in the scene in which David smothers her.

The sequence prior to the final rooftop scene is very different.  In Abre Los Ojos after Cesar charges out of the LE salesperson’s office he fights with and shoots one of the cops several times and then he and the doctor are both shot.  David charges past his guard but does not really hurt anyone as he gets into the elevator with “Tech Support”.  I far prefer the approach taken by Vanilla Sky.  I am willing to follow a flawed character and root for his redemption but when he gets to the point of cold bloodedly shooting a cop just to prove that he is in a dream I personally find it excessive.  David’s approach also seems more true to the character who at that stage is not filled with rage, but just wants to get out of his dream.

In Vanilla Sky it is suggested that Brian inadvertently played a role in the crash.  One of the best moments between David and Brian comes after the nightclub scene and Sofia has just run off and David brings up Brian’s mentioning to Julie of calling her a f--- buddy, which happened right before the crash.  David’s line “She was a little more than pissed about it” leads to Brian claiming “I never said that” and then his eyes very quickly dropping as he processes that he obviously did and it may well have spurred Julie into crashing the car.  This change from Abre Los Ojos is key because early in the film Brian had said “My dream girl is your f--- buddy” and obviously he repeated it to Julie (probably after he had a few drinks) during the party after David and Sofia had abandoned them for each other as a way to get a shot in at David for stealing his date.  Pelayo plays no such role and has no interaction with Nuria in Abre Los Ojos but since David is a bit more sympathetic than Cesar this extra motivation would probably be enough to push Julie over the edge in Vanilla Sky.

The scene at LE is a little different.  In Abre Los Ojos a man explains the process of freezing and dreaming to Cesar and then he puts it together.  In Vanilla Sky two red headed women, played by Alicia Witt and Tilda Swinton, possibly representing Satan as a temptress) use a high tech video in a desk. 

In Vanilla Sky David’s nightmare is partially explained by a technical glitch, enhanced by David’s subconscious.  In Abre Los Ojos it is all Cesar’s subconscious.  I like Vanilla Sky’s approach better of LE taking some responsibility for the problem.

Dreams are the underlying (or some might say overt) theme of both films and they both have a lot of dream sequences before the reveal late in the third act about the living dream.  The films both open with a nightmare, the first and last line of both films is “Open your eyes” in English and Spanish, respectively and the first scene after the crash with Sofia in the park is part of a dream (and I think was the first scene filmed in Vanilla Sky).  In Vanilla Sky the park scene plays differently with David realizing he is in a dream and he becomes very saddened and in Abre Los Ojos Cesar just wakes up abruptly during it.  I think the Vanilla Sky approach is much more effective.   I have had similar dreams that I am playing with my deceased dog and suddenly become aware that it is a dream and it is a very sad feeling, well related in this film.

In the final scene on the rooftop in Abre Los Ojos the psychologist is distressed over looking for his nonexistent children, and his wails, which would be horrifying in another context, seem distracting here since he is not real.  Kurt Russell’s character in Vanilla Sky temporarily loses it and then calmly accepts his status.

This is more of a similarity between the two films but is Sofia really that great a girl?  She meets Pelayo/Brian and goes on a date with him during which she ditches him for his rich/better looking friend.  She refuses to do anything with Cesar/David out of respect for the friend but she is also a little complicit here.  Perhaps she is in regular contact with Pelayo/Brian after Cesar/David’s accident but my thought is she first reaches out to him when Cesar/David wants to go to the club.  In Vanilla Sky at the club she starts talking to another guy with David (and Brian) there knowing how they feel about her (maybe Brian is over her at this point, he seems to be).  In both Cesar and David’s dream she is wonderful and completely loving but in real life while still amiable she puts her own needs front and center.

Individual Observations - Abre Los Ojos:

The shot where Sofia appears as herself bathed in white light her apartment after Cesar is arrested is reminiscent of a similar shot in Vertigo in which a “perfect” woman was a form of illusion.

Individual Observations –Vanilla Sky

In the early scene in which David and Brian are in the car they are nearly in a collision with a truck, which serves as foreshadowing, or perhaps divine intervention similar to some of the characters’ fates in Pulp Fiction.  If a viewer were to believe that theory, since David continues to behave selfishly and thus refuses his chance at redemption by getting in the car with Julie, he is punished with the second crash.

Jason Lee played a lot of average looking guys around that time.  He has an easy chemistry with Cruise and yet standing next to Cruise one can see how a woman would forget he is there. 

Vanilla Sky ends on top of a Manhattan skyscraper with the image of the twin towers in the background sadly reminding everyone that this is a dream.  The film was shot before 9/11 but released soon afterwards and Crowe refused to digitally edit the towers out giving the scene a haunting feeling (and also serving as a nice memory of the building and I think of the people who lost their lives in the attack).

There are theories that the entire film is a dream that ends when David opens his eyes at the end of the film, as evidenced by the registration sticker on David’s car 2/30/01, a date that does not exist or that the part of the film after the crash is a dream while David is in a coma but I tend to take the plot at face value.  The frequent mention of dreams reminds the viewer of the theme of the film and also hints of the dream in the second half of the film.

Michael Shannon plays David’s prison guard.

In summation I enjoy both films and the premise in both the smaller scale Abre Los Ojos and the epic Vanilla Sky work in their respective scenarios.  Of the two though, I enjoy Vanilla Sky more.  Some of the scenes are a bit overdone (such as all the scenes with multiple images flashing through David’s mind) but it is a more moving piece due to Crowe’s romantic touch.  But I encourage anyone who sees one to then see the other to get the full experience.

Abre Los Ojos: ***
Vanilla Sky: ****