Tom Cruise says that when he first saw Alejandro Amen谩bar's "Open Your Eyes", he was on his mobile phone trying to buy the rights to a remake even before the credits had stopped rolling.
Watching this masterful Spanish thriller, you'll quickly understand Cruise's enthusiasm - it's one of the most thought-provoking thrillers of recent years, a film that really does challenge its audience's expectations and suppositions at every turn.
C茅sar (Noriega) is a handsome Madrid playboy whose life takes an unexpected turn for the worst when an ex-girlfriend tries to kill him by crashing the car they're driving. C茅sar survives, horribly disfigured and with no chance, it seems, of ever winning over the woman he loves, Sofia (Cruz, who also stars in the remake).
Drawing strength from "Beauty and the Beast", "Phantom of the Opera", a host of film noir thrillers, and even sci-fi movies, Amen谩bar's labyrinthine puzzler is a stunning movie that'll keep you guessing right until the very last minute... and scratching your head all the way home.
Playful, frustrating, and very clever, Amen谩bar's script covers everything from our contemporary obsession with beauty, to the emptiness of modern culture and the kind of questioning of reality that's usually only found in sci-fi movies. That, combined with some brilliant moments (C茅sar wandering through a deserted Madrid, uncertain whether he's alive, dead, or simply dreaming), make this one film you're unlikely to forget.
Let's hope that Amen谩bar's current infatuation with Hollywood (as in his recent Nicole Kidman chiller "The Others") doesn't rob him of his originality.
In Spanish with English subtitles.