Tom Cruise at 60: Weakest Performances
Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)
Role: Lestat de Lioncourt
Director: Neil Jordan
Writer: Anne Rice, based on “Interview with the Vampire” by Anne Rice)
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Neil Jordan’s horror adaptation of Anne Rice’s acclaimed novel is a mixed blessing.
Brad Pitt, who should have played Cruise’ part, and the very young Kirsten Dunst render more memorable performances.
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Role: Bill Harford
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writers: Stanley Kubrick, Frederic Raphael, based on the novella “Traumnovelle” by Arthur Schnitzler.
Distributor: Warner
Under the direction of the great Stanley Kubrick and his final outing with his then-wife, Nicole Kidman, who fares better, Cruise struggles to achieve the right one in this erotic drama.
Marking his last directorial outing, Eyes Wide Shut is not one of the great films from Kubrick (who died in 1999, before the film’s release).’
Surprisingly (or rather disappointingly), the sexual scenes between Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise are among the film’s weakest ones, failing to generate any heat–or tension.
