After all of the controversy surrounding the psychodrama Eyes Wide Shut, it is hard to believe that Stanley Kubrick's latest - and last - film, starring real-life couple Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, has a virtuous message: As Dorothy discovered so long ago, "There's no place like home".

Kidman and Cruise play an upscale Manhattan couple (he is a doctor, a fact that he mentions at every opportunity) apparently in love, but bored with the good life and with each other. Against an opulent yet restrained backdrop, the Harfords encounter the often competing issues of marital fidelity and individual sexuality.

The most compelling scene in the movie comes quickly. The Harfords, a bit stoned, confront each other jokingly about flirtations in which they each engaged at a recent party (the sumptuous opening sequence, during which Sydney Pollack gives a great performance as a wanton millionaire, the film's jaded voice.) The discussion ends up in a fight, in the wake of Bill's smug assumption that his wife, "the mother of his child", would never dream of cheating on him. This negation of her more primal nature sends Alice into a literal fit - and then into a confession of an affair which she almost had.

As a result, Bill embarks on a private Odyssey to discover his own sexual truths. It is unclear whether he is motivated by revenge, or by the awakening of his own dormant passions by Alice's explicit confession - hence the title of the movie.

The rest of the film, over two hours of it, follows Bill on his nocturnal wanderings through various Gothic sequences, including the now famous orgy scene. For all its decadence and explicit hedonism, this scene has a surprisingly clinical feel, not unlike the scenes in which Dr. Bill checks his female patients. Interestingly, the only truly erotic scenes, in my opinion, were those which involved the Harfords with each other, whether they were involved in sexual activity or not. In any event, Bill, who seems to be always initiated but never the initiator, comes close many times, but, like his wife, never actually commits adultery.

The movie's quick, and some maintain too tidy, resolution points to what I think is the film's major underlying question: Does cheating have to be "real" to be considered infidelity? And another: Is it worth it, even from a quality-of-sex point of view?

Kubrick has done a rich and eerie job of creating a waking dream (which is a central theme in the film) where we are the voyeurs. The question of whether most Dorothys can survive such a trip through Oz is one we all must answer for ourselves.