Eye of the Beholder (2000)

The Age of Commercialism

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I've seen tons of movies. All sorts. Horror, comedy, action, drama, etc. Most movies have something entertaining about it. I've seen a crappy movie from Poland where kids go camping and get killed. Simple and garbage film. But that was better than this mess. What we have here is some supposed deep meaning. Well, I couldn't figure it out. Maybe I need the book or give me a cheat sheet. Something. Basically the story is about an investigator, McGregor, spying on a client's son who is having an affair. The woman kills the kid and takes off. McGregor follows from one city to the next. She kills more people. He still follows. The story is so convoluted. Also, his dead daughter's ghost follows him while he's spying on this woman. He speaks to a foster home camp where she was raised, finds out her and her father were homeless. She's now in Alaska working as a waitress and he's in there asking her out for drinks. I can't go on. It's so painful to even relive this mess. Ok, she goes to his trailer home, shoots him with I guess blank bullets, and takes off, he follows on a motorcycle. She crashes into a lake of ice, he goes to save her. Maybe she dies, who the hell knows. The end.Worst part, McGregor's ghost daughter is shown in multiples with some irritating noise maker. This goes on for like half an hour, it seems. Real lousy. If the film makers wanted irritation, they succeeded. There's also a scene where our hero, McGregor, punches a blind man. Nice move. Later he ends up shooting this man's car, killing him. What's not to like about that? How about everything.The audio was garbage, hard to hear the dialogue, and McGregor's accent didn't help. The music was garbage. The cinematography was decent, and you can tell they tried to be arts. This is a torture film. If you're curious about how bad this piece is, please watch in segments, and with the fast forward button handy. You may also want to spread it out into 10 days. Very irritating. It's not so bad its good. It's not so bad its bad. It's not funny. It just hurts. I'd like to mention a similarly irritating film: In the Cut, with Meg Ryan. This film was not only irritating, it was disgusting, stupid, like diving into a pool full of sewer waste. Another supposed art film. Eye of the Beholder was not like diving into sewer waste. It was just a bad film.

Part thriller, part detective, a bit of horror mark this well photographed, well acted, but ultimately not quite successful film. It is too long and seems as if the makers couldn't decide how to end it. Works best for the viewer if he/she doesn't try to figure out every aspect. Interesting attempt, but starts to lose the viewer with repetitive murder followed by following the murderess/love object. Best part is her meeting the blind man she was to marry. Sympathetic aspect of a movie pretty cold despite the would be psychological explanations for behavior of murderess and her tracker.

As you already know, that's the second adaptation from the Marc Behm's novel. The first one was the Claude Miller's feature, starring Michel Serrault and Isabelle Adjani. I have not watched the French movie since a while now, but this one is very close to the novel, although, not as close as it should have been. I mean, many scenes from the book are unfortunately not shown here. Very important sequences. But I admit that this book's atmosphere was rather complex to film, and the director did a fine job in that field, better than the Miller's movie, as far as I remember. And many details provided by the novel were not put here, I understand why actually. But take for instance the short scenes in the book, when the lead female assassin meet two guys who throw her off. One talks to her about his dead child, and she decides to spare him, not to kill him as she did with the others. Very important moment, for me, at least. And the other sequence, where she is attracted by a dude in a bar and the guy suddenly stands up and tells her he will be back in a few seconds, because he walks away to talk to another woman. And the guy in question never came back to our lead. The author Marc Bahm, said that "SHE" realized that a page of her life was over. Very important link that that the film, at least this one - the French movie, I don't remember - did not show. So, I think that this outstanding story should have been supported by a three hours movie, or a mini series. Just to be faithful to the story.

This doesn't even deserve a star. Or even a zero. Or negative infinity. This is by far the worst film I have ever laid eyes on, and Ewan McGregor is one of my favourite actors. This was pedantic, pretentious, pontificating garbage void of a point. The direction is totally absent, the actors flail about on screen without purpose, and what the **** is k.d. lang doing in this???? What a stain on an otherwise brilliant career. If I were involved in the making of this film, I would be ashamed of myself. The only grace in knowing this exists is that one day the world will end and this film will be wiped from existence in the universe. It's THAT bad.