Abre Los Ojos Title Logo
...which is Spanish for "Open Your Eyes". One of my favorite movies of all time. Yes, it's subtitled. I was lucky enough to run across it on the Independent Film Channel in 2000. It was first released in 1997. This movie is just crazy, and damn cool - it's the best. You can get it from Amazon.com. Here's the official site which has a trailer, and here are some reactions / reviews I've found:

SofiaNuria
From N@M:
Verdict? Whoa. Double whoa. Total whoa. And then some more whoa on top of it. See this movie, now. It's out on wide-screen DVD, you should be able to pick up a copy somewhere. I mean, God ! This is the kind of movie that, the second you're done watching it, after only a few minutes to find your breath back, you just have to watch it again. I knew next to nothing about it, and that's the way it should be. The film totally took me by surprise. Here I thought I was watching a good but unexceptional little melodrama about a handsome young man who steals away his best friend's girl and, in a cruel, ironic twist of fate, is horribly disfigured in a car crash. But then... Don't worry, I wouldn't dare go on. Just know that this is one trippy movie.

From The Austin Chronicle:
César can't wake up. The rich Spanish playboy's alarm clock repeats its summons. "Abre los ojos ... Abre los ojos ... Abre los ojos" it urges in a woman's sultry whisper. So he hits the streets of his native Madrid only to find them deserted. Not a soul. "Abre los ojos," murmurs his undeterred alarm. "Abre los ojos ... ." Just a bad dream. "Stop leaving messages on the alarm," he snaps at last night's tousled lay. By the time César (Eduardo Noriega) is zipping through the crowded streets of Spain's largest metropolis, Alejandro Amenabar's sleek, stylish psychological thriller is coming on like a Latin lover -- fast and smooth. Equal parts Hitchcock, The Phantom of the Opera, and Alan J. Pakula's conspiracy potboiler The Parallax View, 1997's unrelenting Open Your Eyes is the perfect European sex flick: It never stops fucking with you -- not even after the climax.

Mime in an eye
From Amazon:
If you like films that keep you guessing until the end, you'll love this Spanish film. The editorial review gives as much a synopsis of the plot as possible, to give you more of the story would be unfair. It is only after the last 5 minutes of the film that you realize exactly what's going on - but the ride there will keep you enthralled. It is one of the best psychological thrillers I've ever seen, taking you deep into the twisted "reality" of a disfigured man (Eduardo Nuriega), haunted by his love for the beautiful Sofia (Penelope Cruz at her finest!) But if you think this is a film that just depicts a man dealing with disfigurement, you've only touched the surface.

I found myself thinking about this film days after watching it the first time, and now after having seen it at least 5 times it still invokes questions inside of me on some of the deeper aspects of life. "What is success, beauty, love and happiness?", "Who would we be and what would we do if everything was taken away from us?". In the end, I analogize this movie to a lesson on reincarnation. Think of that during the last 60 seconds of the film...as you find yourself covered in goosebumps.

From IMDB:
I went into this movie with no reservations and was pleasantly astonished by it. I advise anyone else to do the same; it is not like the Matrix, it is not like Hitchcock, it simply exists in its own right. The film attempts to be at least two movies in one. Unlike numerous attempts in the industry, it succeeds elegantly. I was drawn into the first part, the character portrait of the wealthy, shallow young man who undergoes a startling change... and then found myself swept up in a keenly sympathetic, psychological suspense film. Part of the success of the story is that it is centered primarily around several young, uncomplicated characters. In Hollywood, such characters in suspense films are usually knifed up within the first few pages of script.

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