The initial reaction to Eyes Wide Shut was that it wasn't really provocative or erotic and that Kubrick was out of touch. As with all of Kubrick's films, it took more than 20 years for critics to reassess the film.
Kubrick wasn't trying to one-up the Italian directors of the 1970s by shooting “realistic” sex scenes with hand-held cameras or whatever; Everything for him had to be perfectly choreographed, and it works because that's not the point of this movie.
But Hartford was completely humiliated by these people after they discovered him. Who knows how many of his clients were in that room? This was the lowest point for him: being punished by people who are obviously in a higher position than him.
I think Kubrick expresses his bleak view of humanity better in this film than any of his war or horror films. And given that this is a story about a middle-class man, it can be even more bleak.
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