Rating: R
Genre:
Thriller
Theatrical Release: 04/16/1999(USA)
Release Date: 08/21/2001
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: Espanol
Sound: DDS2.0
Run Time: 117 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Profanity, Sexual Situations
Distributor/Studio: Live/Artisan
The line between dreams and reality become increasingly blurred after a womanizing playboy is nearly killed by a jilted lover in Spanish director
Alejandro Amenabar's masterful sophomore effort
Abre Los Ojos (
Open Your Eyes). It would seem as if
Cesar (
Eduardo Noriega) has it all. Handsome, charming, and with money to burn, he can get any girl he wants, and usually does so on a nightly basis. Following a birthday party in which he chats up
Sofia (
Penelope Cruz), the date of his best friend
Pelayo (
Fele Martinez),
Cesar is plunged headfirst into a nightmare world when jealous former lover
Nuria (
Najwa Nimri) swallows a handful of pills and sends her car careening into a cement wall with the terrified playboy as her hapless passenger. With his formerly strikingly handsome face now twisted into a hideous mass of scarred flesh,
Cesar's ugly emotions are now externalized for all to see. Pining for a plastic-surgery miracle to return him to his former glory so that he can seek out
Sofia and take a chance at real love, he is pleasantly surprised when the doctors make a breakthrough and
Sofia accepts him back into her life. Although all seems perfect for the moment, the formerly soulless player finds that this is only the beginning of his increasingly disturbing journey. Why is
Sofia changing appearance and turning into
Nuria periodically? And why won't the police and his psychiatrist believe
Cesar's desperate attempts to rationalize a world that is growing increasingly surreal? Could it have something to do with a doctor
Cesar has seen on television who keeps appearing and attempting to help him out of his nightmare? Peeling away at the layers of his subconscious,
Cesar begins to realize that reality is no more than a state of mind, and that in order to get his life back he may be forced to take unthinkable measures.
~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
