It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

I must have forgotten that the absolutely terrible Cameron Crowe/Tom Cruise film Vanilla Sky was a remake of this, the original Spanish film, and it is funny that the actress reprised her role as well, but anyway, I was hoping this original version would deserve it's place in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book. Basically in Madrid, twenty five year old wealthy playboy César (Eduardo Noriega) used to be a good looking young man attractive to women, but now he wears a prosthetic mask due to his hideously disfigured face, he is talking to psychiatrist Antonio (Chete Lera) and telling his story of how he came to be the way he is, in the hope to find some kind of closure. Flashbacks see that at his birthday party he met and flirted with the girlfriend of his best friend Pelayo (Fele Martínez), the beautiful Sofía (Penélope Cruz), he later takes her home, but they do not sleep together, and the next morning his obsessive ex-lover Nuria (Najwa Nimri) spots him leaving her house. Nuria offers César a ride back to her apartment for sex, but on the way she instead intentionally crashes the car to commit suicide, he however survives with the horrible disfigurements that cosmetic surgery cannot solve, Sofía is no longer able to look at him and goes back to Pelayo. Following his disfigurement César has a series of disorienting experiences, including falling asleep drunk in the middle of the street, and when he wakes up he finds that everything is changing for the better, Sofía is claiming now to love him, and surgeons are in fact able to restore his face and good looks, but he finds, when making love to Sofía, she changes into Nuria, he smothers her in panic with a pillow, but everyone claims that the woman he has done it to is in fact named Sofía. He is sent to prison, and while in there bits and pieces of his past come in the form of dreams, he finds out that after he was disfigured he went to Life Extension, a company specialising in cryonics, to preserve a longer, more peaceful and realistic seeming virtual reality of life, in dreams, and returning to their headquarters he finds out they specialise in "artificial perception", where he relives the past when being reborn in the future. When César was drunk on the street, he had in fact committed suicide, and this is the moment he entered cryonic suspension, everything after has been a dream, spliced together with reality and replacing his real memories. The end sees him wanting to wake himself up and be resurrected in the real world, he is convinced the drunken street moment was just a vision created by the company, psychiatrist Antonio tries to convince him he is in the real world, but in the end César leaps off the company's building, hoping he will finally open his eyes and end the fantasy. Also starring Gérard Barray as Duvernois and Jorge De Juan as Encargado L.E. This is a really thought provoking film, I paid absolute attention to everything that was going on because of how fascinating the concept of trying to escape reality and enter a better alternative fantasy was played out, the relationship between Noriega and Cruz is great, the makeup to disfigure Noriega's face is terrific, the murder mystery and twists along the way are clever, and you can recognise the mixes of Eyes without a Face and Vertigo, it is a fantastic psychological thriller. Very good!

I actually watched "Vanilla Sky" first(about 7 years ago) and after liking that movie ,I was eager to watch the original "abre los ojos". I was always annoyed by people saying abre los ojos is better even though i hadn't seen it yet. but finally,I got to watch this after all this years and I'm telling you,it made me to like the whole plot more. I think the original is a superior movie.It's definitely better than American version.I admit that.abre los ojos has more emotion in it.In some scenes I was almost about to cry. The acting is also better in my opinion.I'm not saying that vanilla sky's acting wasn't good.no...Tom cruise did a good job there but still the original wins.You can totally feel the joy,pain and anger in the characters.as for the soundtrack,I believe both movies have great soundtracks.It's unfair to say vanilla's soundtrack was better.the whole abre los ojos's soundtrack was original ,while vanilla only had one original song(Paul McCartney). Amazing music score.I enjoyed the movie.Overall,It made more sense to me.I highly recommend it to people. It's definitely worth watching.vanilla sky gets 8/10 and "abre los ojos" gets 9/10 :)

a man who's face just got damaged tells a story & i have to listen to it the whole time.i expected some action in this film but there is none some crazy stuff happens in the climax.i know people still buy Penelope Cruz DVD's most of her films are weird or sexual soft porn.believe me people are suckers for movies like this but no me some people have huge library of discs i hardly have 400 discs most of them are mix genres & TV shows but lets jut put this aside what is the point of this film.the acting is pure bad & camera work is bad.let me tell you something leave open your eyes alone & buy some tom cruise films collection including vanilla sky & you might enjoy the acting.because the lead actor in this film was drunk.this came out in 1997 & looks quite dated for its time i mean it fails to hold the attention & keep the viewer exited for long.my rating for Open Your Eyes 1997 is 3/10.thumbs up for Penelope Cruz sexiness

Although I didn't get to see 'Vanilla Sky' in 2001, when I got the chance to see it was still a relatively recent movie. Back then I didn't know yet that many of the recent movies I saw were in reality remakes. In other words, I didn't know there were original versions.At the time, I had good expectations about "Vanilla Sky", partially because of its delicious title and partially because it appeared to be good. I was frankly disappointed with it.This one, the original and true version, is superior, easily eclipsing the remake. Even what seemed good in "Vanilla Sky" before seems mediocre next to the original. If you want 'Vanilla Sky' done right, don't look any further - this is it.Admittedly, it's still not an "easy" movie, but it's marginally easier to understand than the flawed American version. But even the original requires extra attention, otherwise it will be even more confusing. It's also more intriguing, more suspenseful, more tragic, more touching, more original, more artistic, deeper and more intense, not to mention it has a very nice soundtrack.Overall, a movie of higher quality. And ahead of its time. In 1997, movies this brave and complex were something from another world or even another planet. Nowadays we easily find movies like this, but in 1997 that was another music.On paper, "Abre los ojos" is the predictable story of a young man (César) who has everything in life: he is rich, good-looking, popular among his friends and lucky with women. That's the easy part. Behind this simple idea lies an extraordinary and exceptionally complex story. Unexpectedly, César meets the charming Sofia and instantly falls in love with her. She corresponds but soon César's life changes completely, when his insanely jealous lover Nuria tricks him into a trap by offering him a ride, covering her true intentions. She intentionally commits suicide by crashing the car. César survives, but his face gets seriously deformed.César is willing to pay anything for a cosmetic surgery, so that he can have his normal face again, return to his life and reconquer Sofia. Much for César's sorrow, nobody can (or doesn't want to) operate his face. After that traumatizing experience, César becomes emotionally unstable, aggressive, confused, deeply depressed and his mental health changes dangerously: he suffers from flashbacks, disturbing visions, is unable to distinguish dreams from reality and even confounds Sofia with Nuria - and by seeing Nuria instead of Sofia, he reacts with violence to that and the innocent Sofia is the one who pays. To tell the truth, the film comes to a point which is almost impossible to tell what's real and what's not - but all this complicated mess only makes it more interesting and remarkable. An amazing yet strong movie with also a surprising ending...But the movie isn't all about tragedy. There is also a romance between César and Sofia, and there is some sexuality. The lovely Penélope Cruz is seen naked. Penélope is beautiful with clothes, but naked she is simply divine. And she's got very lovely boobs.Eduardo Noriega is superb, so much better than Tom Cruise. The actress who plays Nuria, despite her minor role, is clearly superior to Cameron Diaz. Penélope Cruz is in both versions and plays the same role in both but she is better in this one. Maybe it was the pressure and boredom of doing the same thing twice, which affects the performance? Maybe because in the original she speaks her native language? Must be that. Not that I blame her. I love Chete Lera's fantastic acting as Antonio and Gérard Barray's terrific acting as Serge Duvernois (and he speaks Spanish so well that you don't even notice any french accent on him). Fele Martínez is good as César's friend Pelayo.Title in Portugal: 'De Olhos Abertos'.