There are some movies that due to their complex nature defy one interpretation and can't be pegged into a certain category. Much has been said -- in fact, entire books have been written -- about Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO which started as a routine thriller to turn into something completely revelatory.
OPEN YOUR EYES (ABRE LOS OJOS) falls into that vein of films and in doing so establishes Alejandro Amenabar as one of the most original writer-directors making films today. Here is the story of Cesar (Eduardo Noriega), a spoiled rich kid who lives in a swanky loft apartment in Madrid, Spain, and who carries an apparently no-strings-attached sexual affair with Nuria (Najra Nimwri), but who one night falls hopelessly in love with his best friend's girlfriend Sofia (Penelope Cruz). Nuria in a jealous frenzy decides to take matters into her own hands and literally drives Cesar into an accident where she dies and he wakes up, his face disfigured beyond repair. His life in shambles, Sofia beyond reach, and virtually a freak of nature, he decides to take one last step in regaining his lost life... and here is when the film becomes something totally unpredictable.
Amenabar is extremely clever in weaving together elements of very different genres in a way one would never tell when it moves from one to the next. In doing so, there is no way one can ever second-guess what may or may not be the next step in this very intricate story that has to be seen at least a second time, and here is where the wonderful suspense lies -- one that would have had Hitchcock beaming with a smug smile in seeing someone had got it right after he had created (and redefined) suspense film after film. Stunning, maybe a little complicated for some, OPEN YOUR EYES will really make you open your eyes and pay attention.
OPEN YOUR EYES (ABRE LOS OJOS) falls into that vein of films and in doing so establishes Alejandro Amenabar as one of the most original writer-directors making films today. Here is the story of Cesar (Eduardo Noriega), a spoiled rich kid who lives in a swanky loft apartment in Madrid, Spain, and who carries an apparently no-strings-attached sexual affair with Nuria (Najra Nimwri), but who one night falls hopelessly in love with his best friend's girlfriend Sofia (Penelope Cruz). Nuria in a jealous frenzy decides to take matters into her own hands and literally drives Cesar into an accident where she dies and he wakes up, his face disfigured beyond repair. His life in shambles, Sofia beyond reach, and virtually a freak of nature, he decides to take one last step in regaining his lost life... and here is when the film becomes something totally unpredictable.
Amenabar is extremely clever in weaving together elements of very different genres in a way one would never tell when it moves from one to the next. In doing so, there is no way one can ever second-guess what may or may not be the next step in this very intricate story that has to be seen at least a second time, and here is where the wonderful suspense lies -- one that would have had Hitchcock beaming with a smug smile in seeing someone had got it right after he had created (and redefined) suspense film after film. Stunning, maybe a little complicated for some, OPEN YOUR EYES will really make you open your eyes and pay attention.