Kurt Russell joined this science fiction film Tom Cruise without reading the script

“Vanilla Sky” by Cameron Crowe takes place like a dream of soft-amer fever. Despite the exceptional exception at the box office, the film received a mixed critical reception, because it was perceived as thematically confused at the time. There is real, because “Vanilla Sky” is an inferior adaptation of the Spanish film “Open Your Eyes”, in part because he keeps his cards too close to his chest and reveals the culminating twist a little too late.

But once you have accepted these shortcomings and evaluated the film on its own merits, “Vanilla Sky” appears as a mystery of the competent puzzle box with an ardent heart in its center. Composed with stellar performances at all levels (Tom Cruise! Cameron Diaz! Penelope Cruz!), You get a film in layers that deeply plunges into the psychosexual impulses that shape our perception of love and self -identity.

Another memorable performance is Kurt Russell as Dr Curtis McCabe, who listens to the complex events told by the Millionaire Décié David Aames (Cruise), who is in prison. The character of Russell acts as a voice of reason in a story rooted in surrealist elements, serving as a force of earthing to the more agitated personality of Aames. Although the truth is much more complicated than what McCabe and Aames imagine it, this dynamic key in “Vanilla Sky” helps to establish a reference base to help us better understand the reduced perspective of Aames.

Russell told Entertainment Weekly that he had not read Crowe’s script for “Vanilla Sky” before signing, because he was more than happy to work with Crowe and the casting, whatever the film:

“Back before I enroll in” Vanilla Sky “with Tom Cruise and Cameron Crowe, my agent and I were talking on the phone, and I said:” Yes, I want to work with these guys. “And he said,” Well, do you first want to read the script? “And I said:” No, I don’t care if it’s a line or a hundred lines, if they kill seven people or what.

It looks like Russell had fun filming “Vanilla Sky” with the people with whom he wanted to work, and that the cryptic and psychologically intense nature of history turned out to be a funny little bonus.

“Vanilla Sky” is far from being the only film on which Russell had signed without reading the script. In the same interview, Russell mentions that he joined the “Poseidon” of Wolfgang Petersen only because he wanted to work with the acclaimed director. The scenario was a secondary priority at that time, while Russell trusted Peterson’s instincts as a filmmaker, giving his underwater disaster film with Robert Ramsey from Russell in the foreground. Unfortunately, the film was a flop at the box office and received mainly negative criticisms; To judge by the enthusiastic perspective of the actor, it is likely that Russell will cherish the experience, whatever the way the film ended financially.

“Vanilla Sky”, however, is another story. Russell’s eagerness to share the screen with Cruise makes sense, because the two were very close to playing brothers in the 1991 action thriller, “Backdraft”. It should also be mentioned that Cruise was that to mention “Backdraft” in Russell when the two linked on their mutual love for extreme air sports at the time. Unfortunately, Cruise had to refuse the role due to contradictory hours, and Russell signed to play one of the McCaffrey brothers alongside William Baldwin. “Vanilla Sky” was an opportunity for the two actors to finally work together, and this decision is extremely paying in favor of the film, because each interaction Aames-McCabe brings us closer to the true nature of “vanilla sky”.

Even if we pass beyond this character dynamic, Crowe’s film intelligently uses the disorienting experience of Aames to examine the identity as well as the contradictory relationship between the mind and the body. Aames can deceive his mind (and his body) to live a lie, but the subconscious always finds a way to resurface, transforming the sweetest dreams into bitter nightmares. This also offers a scathing comment on escape as an adaptation mechanism, where the search for happiness can be transformed into a horrible auto-effacement erasure cycle without outings. Although “Vanilla Sky” can leave you a little dizzy after the credit bearing, it is a useful feeling nevertheless – as to wake up after a disconcerting dream.