Eye of the Beholder

I had not seen this movie when originally released because of bad reviews. I did however recently pick up the DVD in the $5.99 rack at Target mainly because I really like Ewan McGregor and Ashley Judd. They did do their usual fine job of acting but I must admit that the plot was convoluted and illogical and the first time through watching it normally, I was disappointed in the lingering confusion.

I then watched the one deleted scene and the alternate ending and it changed my whole perspective. Sometimes alternate endings do not really change much but this was the most dramatically different alternate ending I have ever seen. It wrapped up everything for me and made the whole thing crystal clear and satisfying.

I can not imagine why they left out this long segment that does not so much result in an alternate ending per se, but rather fills in a lot of the holes that I had in my head. It is worth your time to rent the DVD and see this alternate ending. It may change your mind about the movie.

I am surprised that this has got such bad ratings. Admittedly, it's not great, but it's not that bad either.

Started off really well and had heaps of potential. However, after a point it loses focus and starts to drift. Still, a decent and intriguing story.

Good performances from Ewen McGregor and Ashley Judd.

Looking at the plot summary and the advertising for this movie, I was led to believe that this movie would be some kind of action packed serial killer movie. What I got was something completely different.

McGregor plays The Eye, some kind of surveillance agent, whose wife has left him and taken his baby daughter with her. That doesn't stop him from seeing his daughter in hallucination form. During a routine surveillance assignment, The Eye watches Judd kill his target, and he instantly falls in love (or something like love). He becomes so obsessed with Judd that he quits his job, and begins stalking her, and comes to find out that she's a virtual chameleon, changing identities on a whim.

What I thought would be an action movie turned out to be a very existential art film. It very much had the feel of a foreign film. The direction is very good; there are some things in this movie that I've never seen before (the bathroom scene is a good example). Both leads are good (although McGregor's part needed to be played by someone much older, not younger, that Judd). The daughter hallucination is annoying at times, but it's an effective plot device. The movie does just kind of go freeform after the first half hour, and logic goes out the window at times, but those are hallmarks of foreign films, which this feels very much like. A lot of people are going to see this movie and hate it (much the way that people who were expecting to see an I Know What You Did...-type movie hated Blair Witch Project). Not what I expected, but I was still satisfied.

This has got to be one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I honestly can't complain about the acting because, simply, the script didn't call for any. The plot was unbelievably, unthinkably thin, it makes...well, let me put it this way: Think of the movie with the thinest possible plot ever. Got it? Now make it 10 times thinner, and you have an idea of this film. And what happened to the dialogue? Did anyone else notice this? I swear, there's maybe about 10 lines in the whole film. Well, I guess that's good, because it is deaf-friendly. Not that ANYONE would ever want to see this. It might be worth it to see Ashly Judd naked, but if you want that, you can see "Double Jeopardy," "Norma, Jean and Marilyn," or...hell, any movie with her! Just make sure that if you do rent it, skip right to the end of the second scene, and then the bathtub scene. Then stop watching.

This movie made absolutely no sense at all. NONE. 'What?' and 'Why?' were questions I was asking throughout the film. I didn't understand what was going on at all. It seemed that each scene had absolutely nothing to do with the next, and in a movie like this you just assume "well it will all come together at the end." But it doesn't. Nothing is explained. I never understood what Ashley Judd's character was trying to do, and I never understood what "the Eye" was trying to find out. It's completely incoherent. I didn't understand this at all. I always thought that it was coming together, but everything always fell apart. It's no wonder that it wasn't released for so long after they made it. It didn't make any sense. It was a complete waste of time. It's like they were just making it up as they filmed it. If it wasn't for Ashley Judd's sudden popularity, I doubt it would've been released at all. Don't bother. I'm upset because I just wasted an hour and a half of my life.