eginning with nudity and a woman using the toilet (something virtually never seen onscreen), “Eyes Wide Shut” pretty quickly lives up to the hype of its advertising – and its director, Stanley Kubrick. Dr. William Harford (Tom Cruise) and his wife Alice (Nicole Kidman) scurry off to an extravagant New York party hosted by much-liked, city-renowned Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack) during the holidays. Amid the festivities, innocuous things happen, such as William running into an old school friend, Alice drinking entirely too much, and various guests heavily flirting with both of them. Jealousy (and boundaries) doesn’t appear to be of much concern for the Harfords. “I’m married!”

Partway through the night, Ziegler calls upon William to help resuscitate a naked woman who has passed out after taking too many drugs – a little incident that could have turned into a big public-relations disaster. Instead, it’s hushed up rather quietly, allowing the evening to proceed normally. And the Harfords carry on with their Christmastime routines, including an active sex life, a bit of marijuana to supplement it, and candid conversations about possible infidelities. Despite being under the influence, their frank dialogue soon gets hostile, devolving into an argument about hypothetical scenarios. “This pot is making you aggressive.”

Eventually, it becomes apparent that Alice wants to provoke a reaction out of her husband, disappointed that he – and society – tends to categorize men as sexually uncontrollable and women as sexually repressed or reserved (men being excused and women being responsible). After she confesses an episode of emotional cheating, it does indeed have an effect: William’s mind wanders, imagining the details she may have left out, interrupting his ability to carry out his doctoral duties – though those involve house calls that take a turn toward morally questionable areas as well. What began as an unassuming drama transforms into a labyrinthine psychosexual thriller.

With a hint of reality blurring with fantasy, the Harfords’ loyalties start to disintegrate. And with the momentary lapse in judgment, William disappears into a rabbit hole of secrecy, depravity, mayhem, and murder. Orchestrating some satanic rituals, orgiastic activities, and plenty of arcane mysteries, this newfound underworld of the ultra wealthy (or exclusive, where rules don’t apply) and of infiltrating outsiders is at once absurd and chilling. “You don’t belong here.”

Once again, with Kubrick at the helm, there’s a distinct unhurried quality to the filmmaking; he’s entirely unconcerned with pacing or the runtime. As a result, the film overflows with details, many of which serve only to stretch out the minutes – such as a lengthy sequence in which a masquerade ball costume is procured, pointlessly adding strange, humorous shots with Rade Serbedzija and Leelee Sobieski. It’s as surreal as many of the following scenes, but it’s extremely unnecessary (at other times, there’s an alternation of light comedy and severer discomfort). Even the revelations toward the finale are drawn-out and slow. The characters may appear fuller and more believable, with complicated motives and beliefs, but it’s to the detriment of maintaining audience engagement. “I have seen one or two things in my life …”

And this largely sums up the picture as a whole; even with its superb sense of unease and the idea that it’s steadily crafting a galvanizing conspiracy, it wanders off on tangents. There’s simply too much padding for what could have been a tighter, tenser endeavor. Nevertheless, the acting is exceptional and convincing, generating a good deal of paranoia and agitation and surveillance (ominous piano key pounding works wonders), as if the entire narrative is an exercise in psychologically tormenting William (or teaching him a lesson about acting on indecent thoughts), like in David Fincher’s “The Game.” But curiosity can’t be so easily quelled. And temptations continue to accrue, as does the burning desire for answers (not unlike in one of Cruise’s subsequent films, “Vanilla Sky”), which are often as unconvincing and indirect as the questions. “It’s only a dream.”

– Mike Massie