I watched Vanilla Sky when I was in School. Today, I’m reviewing it after more than two decades. The ending lines ‘What’s happiness to you?’ and the following answer, ‘to live a real life,’ back then too truly captivated me, and still captivates me.
Vanilla Sky was a contemporary Art, albeit remake of Spanish film Open Your Eyes. But original or remake, not many flicks or series engrossed with both romance + a bit of sci-fi, been ever made to be considered a masterpiece. Donnie Darko, Her, are amongst some such exceptions. It’s an experience how one who isn’t conscious is in the quest to of exploring conscience, no matter how many hindrances the subconscious creates, that may cater nightmares, or despite the dreams were a cruel joke or, taunted reality, yet, one eventually takes a leap of faith to acknowledge and accept the reality in the end, attaining the peace & achievement what one couldn’t even achieve whilst living an artificial life.
Vanilla Sky is about cryo-tainment, maybe considered as a metaphorical prequel to Inception. David, a flamboyant playboy, inherited Dad’s publishing empire, trying to maintain control over company against seven dwarfs enemies aka Board Members, who consider him as citizen dildo, who cannot run the company. He’s one day coercively driven to a car accident by his girlfriend Julianna who thinks he cheated her for Sofia. Survived alone with a distorted face that he couldn’t stand, and seeking every possible available treatment to restructure it, including wearing a mask; he faces neglections, eventually juggling a life between reality & dream; later one day discovering by himself of he being one of the patients of a company called Life Extension, who puts the body under cryonic suspension for terminally ill patients until the cure is found; and he being one of them, & further being kept under the lucid dream project for 150 years, alas, living the nightmare, so far.
The flashes of images before death in dreams in the end reminded of Armageddon. Vanilla Sky is about accepting reality, & living with it, rather escaping from it. There’re different interpretations of the ending of whether David still in comatose & dreaming or literally inside Life Extension or hallucinating or whole movie is a dream w.r.t. sticker 02/30/01 (there’s no 30th in Feb) or maybe something else; but the lesson one could derive is to take the leap of faith to reconstruct the reality from every moment that’s passing by, rather escaping anywhere else; as there’s nowhere to escape from the truth or hide, even in cryonic suspension, for centuries.
It’s a must watch.
© Pranav Chaturvedi
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