Eye of the Beholder opened last fall in Europe. It was shown at the Venice Film Festival. The distributers delayed its release in the U.S. Most likely they were hoping that a following would develop for it somehow, somewhere, that could be marketed in the States. But the only luck that the film had was in its casting, with popular Ewan McGregor and Ashley Judd in the lead roles.
Most people who have seen Eye of the Beholder have hated the film. At rottentomatoes.com, the rejection was nearly universal. At imdb.com, the user ratings are even more hostile. There, the median grade is four out of ten, with the mode (i.e. most commonly chosen grade) being one out of ten. The ratings also decline steadily as the audience ages, with teens more forgiving and those over 45 more harsh.
I think I understand why so many have been alienated by Eye of the Beholder. Filmgoers want to be given a motivation for behavior, and it has to make sense within the context of the film. The explanations, or what there are of them, don't satisfy. This can be very frustrating, especially if you are expecting to see a standard thriller. Instead, Eye of the Beholder is a surreal art film.
Perhaps because I don't care what the genre of a film is, watching this movie was not an unpleasant experience for me. While it makes for a poor thriller, it is only a mediocre film, rather than a bad one.
McGregor's character is known as The Eye. He is a high tech sleuth for the British government. His colleague is Hilary (singer-songwriter k.d. lang), who seems to have a crush on him. (Hilary teases The Eye about his being bound to a terminal. This is ironic, since she spends the film behind a terminal, while the Eye gets to tour the world.)
McGregor (I'll hereby dispense with calling him 'The Eye') has had a past traumatic experience. His wife left him, taking their young daughter with her. While on a case, McGregor falls for a serial killer femme fatale, perhaps as a sick substitute for his own lost daughter. Rather than turn her over to the police, he gives up his job and stalks her. He even acts as a guardian angel to her, allowing her to continue a lifestyle of exploitation and murder.
Jason Priestley has a surprising supporting role as a sadistic punker. Genevieve Bujold shows up as a mis-guidance counselor and probable lesbian. Patrick Bergin is a wealthy blind man who becomes ensnared by Judd.
Eye of the Beholder has two lead characters who stalk and murder. Why? Because one character lost her daddy, and the other has lost his daughter. Abandonment must be a wrenching experience, especially if one is a child. However, it makes a poor excuse for becoming a murderer.
Admittedly, at least one great film has been made from similar material, Psycho. But that film was wisely told from the viewpoint of the 'normal' characters. The Talented Mr. Ripley gave plausible explanations for the character's crimes. But with Eye of the Beholder, you can only go with the flow, for there's nothing else present to consider. Unless, perhaps, you share director Stephan Elliott's fascination for snow globes. (40/100)
The Eye (Ewan McGregor) is an intelligence agent whose current assignment is to track Joanna Eris (Ashley Judd), a woman suspected of blackmailing a s...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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