Open Your Eyes (1997)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Open Your Eyes (1997) – A. Amenábar

Watching this some 20 years later (and knowing the surprise twist in advance), perhaps some of its shock value and basic weirdness have been lost, leaving instead a very human story about selfishness and awkwardness in relationships.  (This is the film that was subsequently remade in the US as Vanilla Sky, which I haven’t seen). Eduardo Noriega plays a wealthy self-centered but handsome playboy who treats women (and his best friend, Pelayo) poorly. When he ditches his current fling for Sofia (Penelope Cruz), the other girl forces him to pay a heavy price by crashing the car they are driving in, leaving her dead and him disfigured.  Naturally, he struggles with his new identity and the film shows his pain and ostracism. Is it karma? Possibly.  But then, maybe, miracles do happen.  Or perhaps they don’t.  The film doesn’t shy away from the darkness and poses some metaphysical hypotheticals that methinks won’t ever become reality in our world.  But the sci-fi angle does elevate a story that might otherwise be pretty sombre (although human) and makes it unique.  If you haven’t seen it (and can bear some nineties Spanish soapiness), it is definitely worth seeing (the first time at least).