Eyes Wide Open is a really depressing film and not because of the sexuality and the suppression but because of the religious and cultural straightjackets that those people live in. I found it fascinating to observe the lack of beauty in the film. Everything was drab and breaking down. Everyone was in black or covered or not seen. They came alive through their religious ideology in a man's world - women were not present in the teaching and the camaraderie. To be a good man meant to work and have no joy, just read the religious dogma. This is surely an advertisement for why this kind of ideology causes conflict as it is not harmonious to life or the purpose of life = to find happiness (as spoken by one of the world's greatest philosophers - Aristotle). The woman was just there to care for the house and the family and to have children and be a sexual vessel to be honest. Then along comes a homosexual element and a man who challenges the sickness in the society and all the hangups. Of course it is very traumatic for any community stuck in the dark ages to have a 'heretic' in their midst, especially a gay one. Eyes Wide Open is a very good title because all the people in this film go around with their eyes firmly shut to life and its beauty and freedom (god given to everyone). Human beings cause all the problems, not god if it exists - how do any of us really know? The feeling of the sexuality is hidden and dirty and done in the midst of a butcher's shop with dead carcasses all around. The metaphor is vivid. However, the film is bleak and there is only way way out for the protagonist and it is a sad conclusion. Just throughout the film I was yearning for them both to break free of the cultural and mental straightjacket that was self inflicted - tear off those black outfits, throw the hats to the wind and get on an aeroplane to somewhere in the world where they both could live what 'god' had made them for - happiness and love. Felt very sorry for the wife though but she was a stuck sheep. There was no way out of this eyes wide open film - the cultural burden was sadly too heavy and that made the film leave a bad taste in the mouth in spite of its breakthrough subject matter.
Review of Eyes Wide Open
