The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves...
VANILLA SKY
Director: Cameron Crowe
Cert.12
'When you have sex with someone your body makes a promise even if you don't.' David Aames is confronted with this striking piece of logic by Julie Gianni, a woman with whom he has had sex and who demands to know whether or not he is ready to make any promise to her. David replies positively but unconvincingly; Julie crashes the car they are travelling in meaning to kill them both. David survives, but with a horribly deformed face.
David feels guilty, but regrets much more the loss of a beautiful woman in his life. But then when you have a smile and bank account like his there's always another beautiful woman to take the place of the last one. Trouble is, the one he now has in his sights might just possibly be the girl of the dreams of his best friend. David wakes up in the gutter one morning, hung over and alone. He is unlikely to win Sofia with a twisted face. He cannot win Sofia and keep Bryan; maybe he will lose both. Maybe his life has never been so bad. Maybe there are no good possibilities open to him anymore. So maybe it would be much better if he could begin living the dream...
Life Extensions Inc.
That is, the lucid dream, a special service available from Life Extensions Inc. Your body can be frozen at the moment of your choice and then you can live your dream life free of all the inconveniences attached to the real one. 'Starting now,' says David, lying in the gutter.
He has his face totally fixed by a new surgical technique. Needless to say, he wins Sofia. He forms a close relationship with a psychiatrist, who becomes like the father he never really knew. He wins outright control of the family publishing firm from the ageing board. His new life is so much better; no troubles, just pleasure and success. Except for his subconscious. Guilt surrounding his shabby treatment of Julie returns to haunt him and his dream begins to fall apart. The film's form mirrors this content. Sequences are shown out of their proper order. Maybe we see reality; maybe we see a dream. Sofia is sometimes Julie; maybe she always was. Maybe a dream life isn't such a good idea; maybe I'm not in control there.
Garden of Eden moment
Maybe I could go back to my real life. And so you can. But which will you choose - dream or reality? It's a garden of Eden moment but without moral direction, just issues of satisfaction. Life is unfair, life is unpredictable, life is uncontrollable - but it's better than the dream life you built for yourself which tumbles into terrifying chaos because at heart you're not a very nice person. So David decides to go back.
We are the problem
Mankind's latest attempt to build heaven on earth fails for the same reasons as all the others: the problem lies not in the world we have received but within the people who live there. We are the problem, and so building the ideal world to fit our desires will succeed only in confronting us with our own moral deficiencies. David the Everyman turns away in horror. It's all a long, long way from the carpenter who refused to be repelled by human nastiness, who gave himself to remove it, who promises the many rooms of his Father's house.
Simon & Celia Wheeler
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