Open Your Eyes (1997)

"A terrific psychological thriller!  Jane Horowitz, Washington Post

Editor's Note Handsome 25-year-old César (Eduardo Noriega) has it all--a successful career, expensive cars, a swank bachelor's pad, and an endless string of beautiful and willing women. Unfortunately, he can't get rid of his latest conquest, Nuria (Najwa Nimri) soon enough. When she crashes his birthday party, César uses his best friend Pelayo's stunningly attractive girlfriend, Sofia (Penélope Cruz), as a means to her. The next morning, Nuria is waiting in her car outside his apartment and manages to coax him into the vehicle. The next thing César knows, he's wearing a mask to conceal a horrible disfiguration while being interrogated in a prison held on a murder charge. Alejandro Amenábar's thriller distorts both the viewer's and César's perception of reality with a series of mind-bending plot twists, ensuring that this intriguing Spanish production will keep you guessing until its final moments.

	Chete Lera
	Eduardo Noriega
	Fele Martinez
	Penelope Cruz
	Alejandro Amen‡bar - Director
	Hans Burman - Director of Photography
	Alejandro Amen‡bar - Musical Score
	Mariano Mar”n - Musical Score
	Ana Amigo, et al. - Producer
	Mateo Gil - Writer
	Alejandro Amen‡bar - Writer

Total Film
"...The label 'psychological thriller' doesn't do justice to the playful, enjoyably perplexing OPEN YOUR EYES..." -- 4 out of 5 stars 03/01/2000 p.77

Entertainment Weekly
"...Intricate thriller..." -- Rating: B 10/08/1999 p.77

New York Times
"...OPEN YOUR EYES is a film with enough intellectual meat on its stylish bones to give more adventurous moviegoers something to chew on afterward..." 04/16/1999 p.E20

Box Office
"...Successful both as suspense and as philosophy, OPEN YOUR EYES is sci-fi for the more serious-minded..." 04/01/1999 p.233

USA Today
"...Intriguing..." 04/16/1999 p.5E

Los Angeles Times
"...A complex, disturbing, occasionally terrifying story that wreaks havoc with our own fragile sense of what's real and what's not..." 04/16/1999 p.F6

Reel Views 9 of 10
Films of this intelligence, audacity, and complexity come along so rarely that it's mandatory to cry out their arrival... It is a piece of cinema that will have viewers guessing and questioning from beginning to end... The performance of the two leads are extraordinary. - James Berardinelli

The New York Times 7 of 10
...a film with enough intellectual meat on its stylish bones to give more adventurous moviegoers something to chew on afterward... - Lawrence Van Gelder

Washington Post 10 of 10
A terrific Psychological thriller! - Jane Horwitz