Vanilla Sky was a remake of an arthouse Spanish movie called Open Your Eyes, and it showed the problem with glossing up an indie concept; you chip away the edges that made it unique in the first place. The story follows a disfigured man played by Tom Cruise who is charged with murder, and he must recount his life to a therapist played by Russell. This character is essentially a prop in the story, and his only function is to be present for Cruise to do some showboat acting. The therapist has a good reason storywise to be an enigma, but Russell's character is so unremarkable its possible to forget hes even in it. He does get one good scene at the end where his character questions his own existence, only by that point its too late to make him interesting. Russell is usually able to make an impression with even the blandest character, but Vanilla Sky is one of the few times he failed.