Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes)

To call this a Spanish version of "The Matrix" is oversimplifying things. It is certainly true that this film is Spanish (with subtitles—stop whining), as you can see from the title above, and like "The Matrix" it deals with questions of what is a dream and what is reality. But the two films have very different tones: while the American film features heroic Keanu Reeves discovering his inmost abilities lie in the killing-bad-people arena, and is thus an uplifting film, this film features the unsympathetic main character losing Penelope Cruz, and is thus deeply, deeply depressing.

Or does he really lose her? Another difference between Keanurama and this film is that "The Matrix" had Lawrence Fishburne deliver the whole exposition over an agonizingly long period and then delivered its action movie goods with the suddenly very inappropriate black trench coats for a half-hour. This film, by contrast, is all exposition, and thus falls under the category of "metaphysical mystery," which term is not encouraging me to see the film either when I look at it.

Let's turn around for a moment. What do European films generally do better than American films? Portray the rhythms of everyday life and make them a subject fit for, nay, demanding cinematic treatment. This film is not as good as some Eurofilms I have seen at doing this, but the situation is akin to me claiming that Eric Montross sucks; he may be among the worst centers in the NBA, but he'd eat me personally for lunch one-on-one. So we have a film that portrays everyday life well and interestingly. Then, when the basic realities of that everyday life start changing, it does a very good job at showing how those changes are affecting the main character. (I am being very very vague about the plot because if I give anything at all away it will start to ruin the movie, slowly but surely. Thank me later.) When reality slips away from the main character, we are feeling it too, and wondering as well where it went and how he can get it back. This is much less showy a film than "The Matrix," but similarly engrossing, and much more disturbing and suspenseful. A lot of the film gives the same type of feeling as you get when you're descending a flight of stairs and step down expecting one more stair, and instead hit floor: the surprise, the readjusting of perceived reality. When the revelations finally start coming, they hit hard. Gregorio Villa-Lobos (much props to him for proposing this movie to me) and I were both enrapt for the final 30 minutes or so of the movie where all was revealed.

True, there is a long introductory section where the realities of the main character's life are established, but this is okay because it has (a) that effortless charm of certain European films when they're portraying something that, in American films, would elicit bored mockery from the boys at AMC City Place, and (b) a disturbing chick who the main character is trying to shed in favor of (c) Penelope Cruz, who frankly is one of the hottest female actresses in any language you want to name. If Jesse Helms watched this movie, he would have a whole new perspective on foreign relations.

This movie does have certain flaws. For one thing, some people have a problem with subtitles, although I learned to read when I was 3 or 4 and have since gained some practice at it so it was not a problem. (And I would totally recommend this movie to any of the surprisingly large (now that I think about it) fluent-Spanish contingent on this list.) To be fair, during certain parts it is hard for even literate people to tell who is talking, due to various circumstances which I will not reveal in the interest of leaving you all with some impetus to see the freaking movie. The ending, although already pretty prolonged, could have been even more so with no loss of impetus and a lot more suspense gained. Still, though, this movie has plot twists, deaths from gunfire, high technology, Spanish people screaming at each other, and a hot chick.

This isn't a pretty good Spanish-language sci-fi film. It's a pretty damn good sci-fi film, period.

Attractive Man Count: The main character, played by Eduardo Noriega, is sort of underwear-model handsome but is not an especially likable character, so we have here an 0.

Attractive Woman Count: I am on record on this one. 1, pushing 2.

Overall Grade: A-. Keep your eyes open for where you might be able to see it in this country.

So now do we get to have a good American film about everyday life? Nah Lindemann

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