There are quite a few classic movies that tend to come up in an, “is this a Christmas movie?” debate: Die Hard (1988), Gremlins (1984),
and even The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
are just a few that come to mind. However, Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 erotic thriller starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, might be one of the more controversial additions to that list.
Set at Christmastime, Eyes Wide Shut follows New Yorker Dr. Bill Harford (Cruise) as he decides to infiltrate a secret sexual society after learning that his wife (Kidman) has considered having an extra-marital affair. Fans of the film have discussed whether the psychosexual flick can be regarded as a holiday movie, citing both the film’s setting and themes as evidence. However, some people argue that the events of the story have nothing to do with the holidays. So, is Eyes Wide Shut a Christmas movie? Is Kubrick’s final film, a meditation on elitism, secretly festive?
Release Date
July 16, 1999
Runtime
159 minutes
A Brief Recap of ‘Eyes Wide Shut’
Dr. Bill Harford lives with his wife, Alice, and daughter, Helena, in an upscale New York apartment. One night, after leaving Helena with a babysitter, Bill and Alice attend a swanky, high-class holiday party where they each respectively flirt with strangers. The next night, Christmas Eve, they discuss their experiences at the party, and Alice admits to having harbored a deep attraction to a naval officer years ago. Bill is called to a patient, all the while tormented by the newfound knowledge of his wife’s wandering eye.
Later that night, Bill is reunited with a friend from medical school, a pianist named Nick. Nick tells Bill about a gig he is playing later that night, stating that it is very secretive, and he never knows the address until right before. After some convincing, Nick tells Bill the details about the party, letting him know he needs to procure a robe and mask as a disguise.
Bill arrives at the mansion, dresses the part, and provides the secret password. He then discovers a large occult orgy in progress. A masked, nude woman warns him that he is in grave danger, but before he can find out more, Bill is discovered by the host as an outsider. The masked woman sacrifices herself for Bill, and he returns home, guiltily, to his wife.
In the following days, however, Nick is nowhere to be found, and a woman he recently met has similarly disappeared. When he is summoned by a patient, Victor Ziegler, who turns out to be a member of the society, he finds out some answers but is generally threatened to keep quiet. Bill returns to his Alice and confesses everything.
The next day, when Christmas shopping
with their daughter, Alice remarks that they have to engage sexually with each other imminently.
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The Christmas Setting Is Intentional
Eyes Wide Shut is based on a 1926 German Novella called Dream Story, which is set in Vienna at Mardi Gras. Thus, Kubrick intentionally changed Eyes Wide Shut’s setting to Christmastime in New York, and this shows: Bill walks the snowy streets, characters wrap gifts, trees adorn the background, and more. The bulk of the plot takes place at various Christmas and holiday parties, from the film’s opening to the seminal orgy scene itself, which takes place on Christmas Eve.
Bill, on Christmas Eve, has a life-changing, liminal experience
. Many have interpreted the themes of Eyes Wide Shut as distinctly anti-capitalistic, which New York and Christmas both represent. Therefore, one could interpret Eyes Wide Shut as a sort of subversion of the standard Christmas film that utilizes its setting to make statements about materialism. As a film that in part serves as a takedown of the rich and powerful, it is possible that Eyes Wide Shut could also mechanize a Christmas setting to point out how commodified the holiday has become. It has become more about gift giving and consumerism than it is spirituality or family, just as the rich exploit people in Eyes Wide Shut.
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No, Eyes Wide Shut is not a typical Christmas movie by any means. It spent years being famously misunderstood (as are so many of Kubrick’s films) and still is by some metrics.
Kubrick’s passing before the film’s release
made its interpretation even more elusive than his other films. It is incredibly sexual, including a borderline impressive amount of nudity (particularly nude women, so much so that it would not be difficult to conjure an anti-feminist reading).
Christmas is not explicitly discussed in the film very much. It is more about what Christmas represents, and how that complements what Eyes Wide Shut is trying to say. It explores the hypocrisy behind something pure, like the “holiday spirit” and the veneers of polite society and the seedy underbelly of true human desire. Arguably, Eyes Wide Shut is Kubrick’s take on a dark Christmas movie.
This may not be a family movie and should definitely only be enjoyed once the kids are comfortably dreaming of sugar plums. But, with its seasonal setting and seemingly pointed opinions on the holiday, Eyes Wide Shut is as much of a Christmas movie as any. Stream on Paramount+.
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