Open Your Eyes was everything that Vanilla Sky was NOT! First, the supporting cast was multi-dimensional & flawed. The friend had layers–begrudging acceptance of his friend’s good fortune & casual betrayals. Sofia was a three dimensional woman who appeared to live a life before becoming the dream girl–friends, family, career aspirations as opposed to a Cameron Crowe pixie girl. Second, this movie is less interested in the sci-fi part of the plot and cares more about the main character’s story and those around him. The “everything is a dream” part isn’t an excuse to recreate popular culture scenes, but is interweaved throughout the plot & is more exciting as opposed to being heavy-handed and a chore, which actually makes it more convincing and less in need of an explanation than the remake. Third, it is an exegesis on faith and eternal life: what do you believe, what would your eternity look like, do you deserve heaven or hell, which is better: chance at a perfect dream or a new start. If your god is money (E.L.I.) & money could buy anything, would you still not have any character. Finally despite the lofty themes, the director is unflinching with the main character. Despite his mental journey, he still may remain shallow and possibly incapable of having real relationships considering his preoccupation with his appearance. Throughout the movie, the audience isn’t manipulated into believing that he deserves every thing good that he gets & made to feel sorry for him. Tom Cruise is seemingly unable to do so unless explicitly playing a villain (Cruise does get his character’s physicality right), but in Vanilla Sky, the character is given permission to disregard his illusions by said illusions, whereas here, even the illusions that he cares about are still treated like Nuria–gaping holes in reality shaped to fit what he needs as an eternal, needy toddler, not who they are. It was also important to minimize the role of his wealth & the “partners” so the audience wouldn’t get distracted by the potential of a conspiracy against him. The origin of his wealth is a part of who he is, but not his essence. Random aside: I’m not sure if Nuria was supposed to be an allusion to femme fatales or The Natural, but if it was, it was better & more effective than Cameron Crowe’s assembly line homage to his fave popular culture moments.