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Open Your Eyes | Year: 1997 Classification: Foreign Film - Spanish/Misc Sa Directed: - Alejandro Amenábar Actors/Actresses: - Eduardo Noriega - Penelope Cruz - Eduardo Noriega (II) - Penélope Cruz "Abre Los Ojos"...Makes "Vanilla Sky" look very bland... I saw "Abre Los Ojos" quite a while before I saw "Vanilla Sky," and to me it is far superior. Cameron Crowe's version of this dark and twisted dreamscape is so prettied up and sanitized that much of the impact of the story is lost--as is the case with many Americanized versions of foreign-language films. Eduardo Noriega is amazing (and beautiful)in "Abre Los Ojos," giving the character of Cesar a sense of darkness as well as vulnerability, not to mention the egocentricity of a spoiled child that is expected in the character--Tom Cruise, on the other hand, just seems like a movie star throughout his entire performance in "Vanilla Sky." Penelope Cruz's performance in this original version is much more believable...ironic, considering she and Cruise became a couple. The chemistry between Cruz and Noriega is much more palpable. The Madrid scenery is amazing, and there is a dreamlike quality to the film that comes from excellent cinematography and just plain good film-making...not Hollywood "magic". The characters are believable, and the ending is not as "sugar coated," so that it has an even bigger impact on the audience. Skip the Vanilla...and open your eyes. SEE THE ORIGINAL BEFORE the american remake :"vanilla sky" alejandro amenabar's "ABRE LOS OJOS" aka "open your eyes"...is simply brilliant!... it's one of the best sci-fi ever made!...( along with "ghost in the shell" , "blade runner" , "cube"..etc.).. the acting,plot,cinematography,music (also composed by alejandro),directing are all perfect! -the story. ...CÉSAR (portrayed by spanish actor eduardo noriega who is btw also in amenabar's "TESIS".) , is in a mental institution,where a psychiatrist (chete lera) attempts to convince him to reveal the face he hides behind a plastic mask.Cesar insists that he's horribly disfigured (do to a car accident).no matter how many times he's assured that his face has been restored through plastic surgery. What happens next is totaly unbelievable!... the film just gets stranger and weirder till the final unpredictable conclusion. i wont spoil the rest. the film also stars penelope cruz as cesar's fiance , najwa nimri (also played in "los amantes del circulo polar" aka "lovers of the artic circle") as nuria,who is responsible for cesar's accident,& Fele martinez(also played in amenabar's"Tesis" , "lovers of the artic circle" & "el arte de morir") as Pelayo,cesar's best friend. other suggestions: read philip k. dick's "UBIK" , order alejandro's previous film "TESIS" or "thesis" (one of aljandro's best films!) ,also, his american debut film "THE OTHERS" , jaume balaguero's film "LOS SIN NOMBRE" (the nameless). abre los ojos dvd offers scene index,cast & crew bios,production notes & english subtitles..no trailers,making of,behind the scenes were included,but they are compensated by a great image quality. An ambitious unusual drama. A handsome young man by the name of César (Eduardo Noriegn) tries to recover from his terrible Car Crash, almost being Killed by His Jealous Girlfriend (Najwa Nirmi). His face is now grotesquely disfigured and now, he been placed in a psychiatric penitentiary for a murder, he doesn`t remember committing. César only hope is to find his own depths of his subconsicus mind. Where he could find the answer to end his living nightmare, what lies in his dreams. Directed by Alejandro Amenabar (The Others) made a clever mystery, sci-fi, suspense/thriller with a romance. The film is intriguingly complex, psychologicial thriller that blur the line between reality and fantasy. Noriegn gives a strong performance in this. Pénelope Cruz plays the romantic love of his life, which she replayed her role in the American Remake of Vanilla Sky. DVD`s has an fine anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) transfer and an strong Dolby Stereo 2.0 Surround Sound. Do not miss this strange film. Screenplay by the Director & Meted Gil. Grade:A-. Increases emotion and suspense inch by careful inch. Alejandro Amenabar's "Open Your Eyes (Abre Los Ojos)" operates on the notion that dreams and reality walk hand-in-hand down the path of life. It deals with elements of psychological bliss and disturbance in ways reminiscent of Hitchcock and "The Twilight Zone," evoking a tone of constant underlying dread that remains in the mind long after the movie's earth-shattering climax. This isn't a thriller in the traditional sense, but its thought-provoking plot is a testament to Amenabar's superb storytelling capability. The film begins normally enough by introducing us to César (played by Eduardo Noriega), a wealthy man with popularity and good looks tucked under his sleeve. He's got a best friend, Pelayo (Fele Martínez), who takes pleasure in chiding him about his involvement with the persistent Nuria (Najwa Nimri), who simply won't take no for an answer when it appears that César has lost interest in her. His birthday party marks the start of a new relationship with the lovely and high-spirited Sofia (Penélope Cruz), yet his reservations about moving too fast with her further infuriate Nuria, who offers him a ride back to his apartment the following morning only to run the both of them down a hillside into a wall. The accident leaves Nuria dead and César badly injured, with facial scars untreatable by his physicians, who try to convince him of the risks involved in attempting to return his face to its former state. His disfigurement is a burden to him, as well as to Sofia and Pelayo, who find discomfort not in his looks, but in his downtrodden attitude and outlook on his future. Noriega captures this lapse in emotion quite wonderfully, while also sharing a great chemistry with Cruz which keeps us involved with the romantic aspect of the story as well as the forthcoming mystery. The movie soon reaches a point where everything seems to change... César finds himself in the arms of Sofia, sharing a love he never thought possible; his doctors have come up with a solution to his facial scars, restoring his face back to its handsome look. Everything seems to be going quite well for him, until one night he finds Nuria in his bed and his happy life turned upside down by his friends, who persist in telling him that this woman he clearly despises is Sofia. The story is good at keeping its audience at bay for information and twists, casting us into a darkness so that César's confusion and delirium soon becomes our own as well. His struggle to recover the clues that will solve the mystery behind his life's sudden downfall is intriguing and effectively induces thought among viewers, who will no doubt find themselves recalling clues, piecing together scenes and characters, lines of dialogue and different objects César has come in contact with. It's all a sense of mystifying wonderment, and Amenabar is able to lay on plot twist after plot twist at just the right pace so that we hunger for more. Your acceptance of the movie's fina Buy Open Your Eyes at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Open Your Eyes Search with the Priority Search Engine on Open Your Eyes This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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