Accepting Vanilla Sky is all a dream is the simplest way for someone to interpret the film; more difficult is assuming some of it is reality, and then discerning where the dream starts and stops. For Cameron Crowe, there are two more possible interpretations, both of which conclude that the entire film following the car crash is a dream. In one of Crowe's scenarios, the film immediately following the crash is a dream taking place while David is in a coma. This would mean the film is all taken from David's viewpoint and no one else's, with the early frames of the movie being mostly reality, and everything from the crash onwards being a dream. In the other scenario, Vanilla Sky is a feverish product of the medication administered during David's reconstructive facial surgery. Again, this would mean Vanilla Sky is all taken from David's point of view, only this time everything after the car crash is a drug-induced hallucination as opposed to a dream. These two theories are complicated, however, by the fact that the film prior to the crash already has David narrating the movie from an interrogation room-cum-prison cell, in which Dr McCabe is quizzing him over the murder of Sofia. If the 'it's all a dream/hallucination after the crash' theory doesn't explain the early interrogation scenes, then what does?
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
