Vanilla Sky

Over the years, it has become a common thematic tool. It used to be that films told their stories linearly. Put simply, the events of the films are placed in a straight time line. Like with many things, it was only time before the film industry figured out new ways to tell their stories. People forget that a film is like a book. Each chapter is different. Each scene is different. Moving the chapters, or scenes, out of order but in a manner that still tells the story creates a new form of storytelling. Unfortunately, there are those who don't understand how to rearrange the scenes in a manner that makes sense. In those cases, you get, well, nonsense.
Vanilla Sky is the story of a wealthy playboy who's life is thrown into chaos when a jilted lover decides to drive her car off a bridge....with him inside. As a spoiler, this is hardly a movie that can be interpreted as simply as that. Tom Cruise stars in the lead role and it's his performance that controls the majority of the film. It's both detrimental and beneficial. Mr. Cruise is truly an admirable businessman. He knows, almost better than anyone, what roles work for him. Check his resume and he consistently plays a cocky man who is humbled and has to build himself back up. Vanilla Sky is no different. He is humbled alright. Humbled hard. Therein lies an issue. Cruise is not a sturdy enough actor to best portray the depths to which his character falls. Into the third act though, his performance actually comes into focus much better. His overacting may have actually had reason.
Vanilla Sky is a story told both linearly and non-linearly. Certain sequences are linear. Some are not. Some work. And some don't. At the end of the day though, Vanilla Sky is a thoroughly thought-invoking film. It's storytelling is unique and effective whether it's linear or non-linear. Or to you, it could just be nonsense.