How many *#&!king times did Cruise's character repeat the dialog of whoever he talking to? It seems like 90% of his dialog, like a parrot. "A hooker?" "You had me followed." "He moved to Chicago?" "Where I'm coming from?" Etcetera etcetera. It made Cruise even more annoyingly smug than he usually is. I suppose Kubrick did this on purpose, maybe to accentuate what a tediously overconfident schmuck that Bill Harford was, but it sure got tiresome.
shareThere's something about it that I liked.
shareI liked the movie overall. I always considered it a worthy Stanley Kubrick finale. It's more so that I find Tom Cruise dull and predictable in his acting (excepting some films like Born on the 4th of July), and his constantly parroting dialog just amplified my already existing negativity. It was probably a good idea to pair him and Kidman in the film, given the basic theme of infidelity and the fact they were married. Still, I'd rather have seen someone like Christian Bale in the part (he wasn't really old enough at the time, but someone like him).
shareYeah, I've never been a fan of Cruise, but I thought he did well in this. I thought his character was convincing especially in a dream story.
shareFrequently, but Kubrick uses this technique, Jack Nicholson did a lot of repeating in The Shining ‘words of wisdom, Lloyd, words of wisdom’.
Danny: It’s OK Dad, I saw it on the television.
Jack: See, he saw it on the television.
There’s something strangely hypnotic about lines being repeated, like it takes you deeper into the subtext. De Niro always repeats lines in his films (and I doubt they’re written that way).
David Lynch uses it too. Repetition and mirroring (of all kinds of elements, not just dialogue) seems to be a feature of dreamy films that take you deeper into the subconscious.
This is true of The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut, but I don't think Kubrick employs nearly this much repetition in any of his other films. The difference with The Shining is that I could listen to Nicholson doing his thing - repetitious or not - all day long, whereas with Cruise I have a very low tolerance. In addition, the dialog repetition in The Shining didn't take me out of the film, but in EWS I found it a much too noticeable distraction.
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