Director Cameron Crowe calls this not a remake but "a cover version" of Alajandro Amenabar's cult Spanish film Open Your Eyes (Abre los Ojos).

I can't quite see the difference.

Apart from switching the action to Manhattan and casting Tom Cruise in the starring role he has remained faithful to the original dark, cold tale in which reality and virtual reality are intertwined and become almost indistinguishable.

He even has Penelope Cruz, Tom's latest squeeze, reprising the role she played in the Spanish film.

Two Cruise/Cruz missiles in one movie - what more could you ask?

Well, you also get Cameron Diaz as Tom's first mistress, the catalyst who sparks everything off.

Tom is the man who has everything - youth, wealth, and remarkable good looks - until everything goes wrong.

Madly jealous when Cruise/Cruz fall for each other, Diaz deliberately crashes her car, killing herself and facially disfiguring him.

From this moment on you are never quite sure what is real.

Cruise, mostly seen in a latex mask to conceal his scars, is questioned by a shrink, Kurt Russell, about a murder.

Whose? Well, at this point I should reveal no more about the plot.

Enough to say that the denouement comes as surprising and shocking.

Crowe's film is not as good as the one it "covers" but it's very watchable all the same and the three leading performers are fine.

Diaz, perhaps, emerges best but Cruise shows here that he's a better actor than most critics will allow and there is genuine chemistry between him and Cruz. Barry Norman