William, znany lekarz, i Alice, właścicielka galerii sztuki, są młodym i zamożnym małżeństwem. Obracają się wśród bardzo wpływowych ludzi, lecz w ich szczęście i spokój rodzinny zaczyna się wkradać nuda. Pewnego dnia na jednym z przyjęć William zaczyna zdawać sobie sprawę ze swej fascynacji światem erotycznych doznań. Wkrótce w tą niebezpieczną grę wciąga również swoją żonę, z którą wspólnie łamie niejedno tabu.

Visually beautiful, Kubrick's last completed film Eyes Wide Shut blends the sinister, the sensual and the clinical in a combination that is rather too personal and idiosyncratic to be entirely successful as the final statement about gender and sexuality he intended it to be. Adapted by Frederick Raphael from the Dream Story of Freud's friend Schnitzler, it shows a young successful couple confront the dangers that lurk beyond monogamy; Nicole Kidman's Alice does little more than fantasise, flirt and dream, but even this causes guilt and pain. Doctor Bill (Tom Cruise) does rather more--he visits a whore, crashes an orgy and continues to ask questions when warned off; if no disaster ensues, and it is possible that two people die as a result, it is only luck that averts it. Much of the best of what is here is to be found in the occasional moments of stillness--Cruise walking through a morgue--or wild comedy--Cruise's attempt to hire a costume in the middle of the night interrupts major shenanigans at the fancy-dress shop. Cruise and Kidman do what they can with material that never means as much as it aspires to and the stand-out performance is Sydney Pollack's, as a worldly wise client.