O Olho de Deus

I have watched this film approximately five times, and the depth of the acting and brilliant presentation of the plot continue to impress me.

A small-town girl, played by Martha Plimpton, marries an ex-convict (who has to wear an ankle detector as a condition of his parole) immediately after he is released from prison. What evolves during the course of this movie forces viewers to consider faith versus the harsh reality of dealing who some people truly are at heart.

Jack is released from prison and meets up with Ainsley, a young woman he has been writing letters to for quite some time. Ainsley is a sweet romantic simpleton who doesn't even want to know about the crime that put him in prison. Jack believes that he has been reformed by the justice system and by religion, but he's also a control freak. For strange reasons lost in the mysteries of the human heart, these poor souls decide to start a relationship.

One can't give away too much of the plot without collapsing the nonlineary framework of the film and ruining its breathtaking effect. So suffice it to say that this recipe for disaster is tossed up in the air along with the biblical story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac and with all the theological and ethical problems both of these stories present. Everything builds to a whirling climax of nonlinear convergence and small-scale horror. In the end the audience is brought face-to-face with that grand philosophical theme "the problem of evil," and we find no easy solutions.

I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma, I understood completely the feeling of the place, the time, the people. So many people think that life is simple in a small town, but it is not...all the dark secrets are there, all the illness that everyone attributes to living in large cities is also there.

I couldn't take my eyes off the screen while I was watching this movie. Sometimes a film does come along that is everything a film is supposed to be.

If you haven't yet seen this film, please make an effort to watch it, it will be well worth your time.

This is one of very few movies that I can actually say changed my life. There has never been any other film or work of art that has had such an emotional effect on me. Martha Plimpton and Nick Stahl are extraordinary; never have I cared so much for two fictional characters. And writer/director Tim Blake Nelson could not have possibly done better for his film debut. This is a movie you will never forget.

I rented this one just as a Nick Stahl fan but was really amazed by how good it was. The disturbing tone and plot line stuck with me for days after viewing it. Stahl was wonderful as a traumatized boy who is just barely surviving his pain. Stahl's work in this film just hints at the depths of talent we may yet see from him. I don't think that Martha Plimpton has EVER been better in her role as a young woman searching for love and redemption. Hal Holbrook, his face a mixture of world-weariness, sadness and kindness, is the real center of the film and he does an amazing job.

One of the most moving things about this film was the idea that deep tragedy can strike at the most seemingly mundane of moments. Coupled with this is the concept that one can never really know what is in another's heart or mind. Because of the narrative form, one knows tragedy will strike, but the director purposefully seems to suggest that tragedy could enter into any setting, at any moment, with no warning. The bookend examination of the story of Abraham and Isaac is ultimately successful because Isaac (like the characters and viewer) was asked to have faith without any proof that seemingly negative events may have a positive reason. The director doesn't offer any pat answers to this dilemma, but he does show that tragedy can overwhelm a person.