Though it opens with a clear shot of Nicole Kidman's lovely behind, with many scenes of assorted semi-naked bodies to follow, Eyes Wide Shut is not, for the most part, a movie about sex. On the contrary, it is about class distinction and the unyielding stratification of our culture.

In his final offering, Stanley Kubrick uses sex as a tool to formulate and present the story's theme much in the same way chalk is used to convey a message upon a piece of slate. Of course, spending a couple of hours before a parade of well-toned flesh is a whole lot more entertaining than sitting in front of a schoolhouse blackboard which, I suppose, was Kubrick's whole strategy of pulling off this masterful ploy.

Inspired by the Arthur Schnitzler novel, Traumnovelle, the movie Eyes Wide Shut opens with Dr. William Harford (Tom Cruise) and wife Alice (Nicole Kidman) attending an upscale party hosted by Harford's wealthy patient Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack). As the Harfords waltz across the floor, Alice asks her husband how he manages to get them invited to such swanky proceedings. "I guess it pays to make house calls," he answers.

Unfortunately, house calls are not enough to secure admittance to the one true club that matters, an ornate orgy conducted at a Long Island mansion. (If you think you've been to wild parties, that delusion is about to be quickly shattered.) Dr. Harford stumbles upon this elegant carnival of flesh and decadence, but soon finds himself before a Kafka-esque tribunal of cloaked and masked figures who advise him in no uncertain terms that he is clearly out of his league.

Eyes Wide Shut is reminiscent of Martin Scorcese's After Hours (with a few parts Satyricon and Maltese Falcon also present in the mix) as the Harford character manages to spend the wee hours of the night exploring unfamiliar and clearly dangerous terrain. It is an intriguing, highly original affair, as one would expect from a master such as Kubrick. The pace is somewhat slow, but it is this reserved momentum, along with the grainy, ethereal quality of the camera work, that provides the movie with the dreamlike quality to well complement the subject matter.

With the exception of the orgy scene, there is little actual consummation of sex that transpires in the film. A consistent undercurrent of sensuality, however, is present throughout the entire affair. Nicole Kidman spends much of the earlier scenes in her undergarments spewing out profanities in a way that only a pro could deliver. Her character's sexual fantasies – the instigating factor in her husband's sexual meanderings – are weaved throughout the story, in black and white footage, via the imagination of husband William.

Tormented by his thoughts, as he depicts his wife carrying out her basest fantasies, Harford spends the lion's share of the film with his zipper wide open, fully ready to embrace the next convenient sexual encounter. But he never actually manages to engage in adultery of any sort. Instead, just like the rest of us in the real world, he is thwarted repeatedly by time and circumstance.

During the aforementioned orgy, he is alerted by a mysterious, unclothed female (except for a mask) that he is in great danger. While the real "danger" is never fully explained, the symbolic one is all too clear. Kubrick obviously is presenting us with a metaphor in which the danger is not only to Harford's bodily person but to his well being as a husband and father.

As is often the case with complex and ambitious undertakings, the movie hits a bit of a rough spot trying to wrap things up. I don't want to give away the ending, but I will say it was uncomfortably lodged in the "happily ever after" arena of parting shots. This is a small criticism at most, however, at a thought-provoking and largely satisfying piece of work. In fact, I can safely say that Eyes Wide Shut will take its rightful place in Kubrick's catalog of legendary masterpieces.