--- title: "Eyes Wide Shut: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/eyes-wide-shut/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/eyes-wide-shut" critics_score: 67 critics_reviews: 8 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Eyes Wide Shut (1999): what the critics said Critics' score 67 from 8 reviews: 6 positive, 1 mixed, 1 negative. Most critics respond favourably to Eyes Wide Shut, with praise clustering around Kubrick’s eerie, dreamlike direction and his treatment of marriage, jealousy and sexual fantasy. The more appreciative reviews find its deliberate pace hypnotic, its encounters unsettling and its domestic intimacy more affecting than its elaborate sexual spectacle. Cruise’s performance draws praise for bringing humanity to the psychological probing, while Kidman and the supporting cast also receive favourable notice. The reservations concern drawn-out scenes, emotional distance and sexual imagery that some critics find tame or dated. The spread is wide: Total Film finds the pace tedious and the eroticism ineffective, though it admires the opening party’s decadent languour. Film Comment directly disputes the charge of dullness and highlights humour that other readings overlook. The Independent takes a mixed position, finding the marital intimacy persuasive but the dialogue and dramatic stakes unconvincing. ## Radio Times — Jayne Nelson Rating 4/5. Kubrick's final film could have been a masterpiece with its trademark creepiness, grandeur and orgy sequence, but to modern eyes it feels tame with an uncomfortable focus on female nudity and overlong scenes. It remains a hypnotic, eerie story of a marriage falling apart with a purely Kubrickian mood. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-xa0tko/eyes-wide-shut/) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 16 July 1999. Kubrick’s final film is an erotic daydream of missed chances and sexual fantasy that holds an unsettling, dreamlike tone through a series of intense encounters. The director excels at the film’s hypnotic orgy sequence and supporting performances but the tidy reconciliation ending feels conventional. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/eyes-wide-shut-1999) ## Los Angeles Times — Eric Harrison Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 30 July 1999. Kubrick’s last film is an ambitious psychological drama and sexualized fever dream rather than a conventional erotic thriller, with danger arising from subconscious fears rather than weapons. The enigmatic story cloaks real-life concerns about marriage and desire in dreamy metaphor and ambiguity. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jul-30-ca-60889-story.html) ## Empire — Angie Errigo Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. As Kubrick's final film it is unmistakably his, intellectually intent and fastidiously crafted yet potentially laborious and remote. The critic singles out Cruise's central performance for lending essential humanity amid the psychological probing of marriage, jealousy and sexual paranoia. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/eyes-wide-shut-review/) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 29 November 2019. The film is a fascinating though flawed late Kubrick work about sexual obsession among the wealthy, adapted from Schnitzler's novella. The critic singles out its chilling emphasis on ruling-class secrecy and the heartfelt performances by Cruise and Kidman for praise, while noting some soft-porn elements feel quaint. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/29/eyes-wide-shut-review-stanley-kubrick-tom-cruise-nicole-kidman) ## Variety — Todd McCarthy Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 16 July 1999. Kubrick’s final film provokes polarized reactions upon release as his works often do, but rewards repeated viewings with greater clarity on its virtues and flaws. The director’s latest work merits a second look to appreciate its richness beyond initial bewilderment. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1999/voices/columns/more-to-kubrick-than-first-meets-the-eye-1117743053/) ## The Independent Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 11 September 1999. The critic concludes it is not a masterpiece or conventional success but a unique cinematic object that fails as melodrama due to risible dialogue and disproportionate stakes. They single out the domestic scenes of marital eroticism and intimacy for praise, noting their intense carnality and fidelity to the source novella. [Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-kubrick-faithful-in-his-fashion-1117924.html) ## Total Film Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 1999. Kubrick has gone out with a whimper; the film is a tedious, unerotic let-down resembling an ultra-long episode of Tales of the Unexpected, with its snail-like pace and pretentious posturing dousing any sparks. The critic singles out the extended opening party sequence for conjuring a neat sense of decadent languour. [Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/eyes-wide-shut-review/) ## Film Comment — Richard T. Jameson 1 September 1999. The critic describes the film as compelling, engrossing and mesmerizing rather than slow or boring. He highlights its humor, which many solemn critics miss, and its radical visualizations of female privacy. [Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/ghost-sonata-eyes-wide-shut/) ## Sight and Sound — Charles Whitehouse The critic finds the film no masterpiece but endlessly fascinating due to its faithful adaptation of Schnitzler's Dream Story and its dreamlike, enigmatic quality. It notes issues with the protagonist's passivity, dated elements, and the tension between viewer and character perspectives on sexuality and morality. [Read the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/eyes-wide-shut-review-endlessly-fascinating-no-masterpiece-from-our-archives) ## The New York Times — Janet Maslin Rating NYT Critic’s Pick. 16 July 1999. Kubrick’s posthumous masterpiece is a spellbinding, dead-serious exploration of sexual yearnings that sustains eerie gravity and dreamlike intensity throughout its adaptation of Schnitzler’s novella. The film’s opening scene of intimate domesticity perfectly captures its themes of illusion and desire. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/16/movies/film-review-bedroom-odyssey.html) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/eyes-wide-shut.md