Overall Rating
  Awesome: 10.66%
Worth A Look: 2.46%
Just Average: 8.2%
Pretty Crappy: 10.66%
Sucks: 68.03%
9 reviews, 68 user ratings
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| Eye of the Beholder |
by Jack Sommersby
"This 'Eye' Has It"
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Ignore the negative reviews, for taking a chance on this is more than worth it.In the mesmerizing psychological drama Eye of the Beholder, Ewan McGregor and Ashley Judd deliver extraordinary lived-in star performances as the hunter and the hunted in a tantalizing crime tale that will leave you absolutely spellbound - that is, however, if you're in the right receptive mind not given to priggishness with respect only to standardized cliche-ridden formulaic fare where you feel all too comfortable being fed every morsel of obviousness on a purely popcorn-munching level. It's really something of a galvanizing cinematic achievement, all told, with not so much as a single uninteresting scene and not a specious shot to be found; it's definitely an original, perfectly-sustained piece from start to finish, with its pure unorthodox mode of storytelling no doubt bound to initially confuse and challenge your everyday audience susceptible to the rudimentary. It's a movie on its own unique level, and if you're willing to submit to it, to give yourself to its numerous fascinating idiosyncrasies, the rewards are more than plentiful. McGregor plays a hermetic investigator within the British consulate based out of Washington, D.C.: an utter wreck of a man at such a young age (no more than twenty-six or twenty-seven) whose wife has left him along with their pre-teen daughter, his Frank is a lonely schizophrenic given to dialogue exchanges with his child who's not actually visibly present (during his stakeouts he passes the time conversing with her and rebuking her when her imaginary self acts up); he's shut himself off from his colleagues, but is now sprung into action when his wealthy ambassador-boss's spoiled trust-fund son has been detected withdrawing large sums of cash to a mysterious beauty of a woman, Judd's manipulative Joanna Eris. He follows them to a secluded oceanside house, where, helplessly, he witnesses her stab him to death, rolls him up in plastic, and disposes of him in the water where her totally nude, blood-soaked self weeps openly at his demise. Frank follows her to the train station where she's booked a trip to New York, but rather than siccing the federal authorities on her, at the last minute he has a chance of heart when his daughter urges him to let her be, that she's just as emotionally damaged as she is, and thus begins a narrative that spans from there to San Francisco to Chicago to Boston and eventually the outskirts of Alaska, with Frank acting as Joanna's guardian angel for reasons he never fully can understand - something speaks to him about her, and it's not cheaply sexual, more like protective, with his actions to preserve her sometimes backfiring in tragic ways. I was a fan of British director Stephen Elliott's much-heralded independent picture Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and with the diametric Eye of the Beholder he proves himself a true eclectic talent with phenomenal control and timing along with an acute visual sense with the 2.35:1 widescreen frame for maximum effect (compliments, also, to the tactile French cinematographer Guy Dufaux). Some will no doubt complain the movie is devoid of ratiocination, but that's merely nitpicking, for if the story is about anything it's the messiness of everyday life for certain individuals who've never managed to get themselves into a rut - both Frank and Joanna are misplaced individuals innately impervious to the easy aspirations of attaining the typical "American dream"; they've gotten lost in the shuffle and are forever trying to find a place in a world with no easy entry point with their off-kilter mindsets. Even in populace major cities, with racial and religious diversities, they still can never fit in. Which propels Frank to partake in an action at the one-hour mark, thinking he's preventing Joanna's latest male companion from becoming a helpless victim but winds up resulting in just the opposite, that's utterly horrifying, and the reason the movie manages to stay steadily on track afterward is the ironclad control of this most unusual material that Elliott masterfully orchestrates. Eye of the Beholder is certainly not for everyone, and if you're willing to overlook that inadequate actor Jason Priestley's horrific acting in a small role as a Death Valley heroin dealer and something of a rushed (though perfectly sensible) conclusion, you should have a grand 'ol time. Say what you will, but you've never seen anything quite like it in your life - it casts a purely hypnotic spell that's all but impossible to resist. A mini-classic worthy of many repeat viewings.Stay clear of the abominable full-screen DVD.
link directly to this review at https://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com/review.php?movie=3461&reviewer=327
originally posted: 01/05/21 22:03:56
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USA
28-Jan-2000 (R)
UK
N/A
Australia
10-Aug-2000 (M)
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