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Movies / On DVD / Eye of the Beholder
Eye of the Beholder

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Eye of the Beholder (1999)

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Reviews Counted:85

Fresh:8

Rotten:77

Average Rating:3.4/10

Consensus: Improbable and muddled.

Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Eye of the Beholder is a startling journey into obsession, the story of an intelligence agent so taken with a beautiful killer he cannot bear to apprehend her. Set in the surreal world of a... Eye of the Beholder is a startling journey into obsession, the story of an intelligence agent so taken with a beautiful killer he cannot bear to apprehend her. Set in the surreal world of a high-tech voyeur, the tale follows him across the country as he embarks on a desperate quest for this enigmatic femme fatale.

Ewan McGregor stars as The Eye, a lonely, isolated British intelligence agent who has lost his wife and daughter, for which he blames his own unforgivable inaction. Yet detachment is part of the job.

The Eye's current mission is to track Joanna Eris (Ashley Judd), a woman suspected of blackmailing the son of a senior British official. But Eris is far more than a blackmailer. She is a seductive, shadowy master of disguises, a frenzied murderer, a lost orphan and an abject mystery whose rage is as fierce as her beauty.

The Eye cannot help but be fascinated by Joanna - especially when a surveillance photo of her seems to reveal the ghostly image of his long-lost daughter, whose absence haunts him. In his deepest fantasies, their two fates as lost souls are somehow connected. As he follows Joanna from murder to murder, the more The Eye finds that he needs to watch her. Not capture her. Not speak to her. But watch her, becoming inexorably more and more obsessed with what he sees. He shadows Joanna without ever letting her know he is there - except that sometimes unexpected turns of fate make it seem as if she has a guardian angel watching over her.

But the closer The Eye gets to Joanna's life, the more dangerous his fantasy becomes. Soon he begins to meddle in her existence, taking action, altering her fate. Yet to catch her would be to lose her, something The Eye cannot allow again in his life. So the odyssey continues . . . until the pursuer and the pursued find themselves on a perilous crash course. [More]

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ashley Judd, Patrick Bergin, K.D. Lang

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ashley Judd, Patrick Bergin, K.D. Lang, Ann-Marie Brown, Jason Priestley, Geneviève Bujold, Charles Powell

Director: Stephan Elliott

Director: Stephan Elliott
Screenwriter: Stephan Elliott
Producer: Nicholas Clermont, Tony Smith
Composer: Marius De Vries

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Eye of the Beholder

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41 - 60 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

A sleek, impressively well-made movie, a lyrical flower in a bed of January thorns, if you will. It is simply too admirable a film on too many levels to be thrown to the wayside.

Full Review Source: DustinPutman.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dustin Putman
Dustin Putman
DustinPutman.com

Saddled with a somewhat drab and reactive role, McGregor tries hard to make us care about The Eye, but it's an uphill struggle.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
01/01/00
Ed Kelleher
Ed Kelleher
Film Journal International

Eye of the Beholder wants to be an art film and a thriller. It fails at both aspirations. If you'll pardon the expression, there is far less here than meets the eye.

Full Review Source: NUVO Newsweekly | comment Comment
01/01/00
Edward Johnson-Ott
Edward Johnson-Ott
NUVO Newsweekly

The more complex it tries to be, the less compelling it becomes.

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
01/01/00
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A film that is genuinely unpredictable, but only because nothing in it makes sense.

Full Review Source: EricDSnider.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Eric D. Snider
Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com

It isn't insultingly bad; it's just incompetent.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Eric Harrison
Eric Harrison
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

There was probably some intended meaning behind this hullabaloo of nonsensical imagery, but somehow it all gets lost.

Full Review Source: Film Blather | comment Comment
01/01/00
Eugene Novikov
Eugene Novikov
Film Blather

Eye of the Beholder is nothing more than a mediocre mystery-thriller trying to bask in the glow of its star, Ashley Judd.

Full Review Source: Houston Community Newspapers | comment Comment
01/01/00
Gary Brown
Gary Brown
Houston Community Newspapers

This one might turn off the MTV generation eager for a succession of slam-bang episodes, but will fulfill the hopes of those who believe that vigorous inner action is of more dramatic note than plot-driven, exterior movement.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
01/01/00
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

Please don't waste your time on this dreck.

Full Review Source: Phantom Tollbooth | comment Comment
01/01/00
J. Robert Parks
J. Robert Parks
Phantom Tollbooth

If you're looking for more plot development -- or a sensible denouement -- forget about it.

Full Review Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jack Garner
Jack Garner
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

If you're a bad-film aficionado, you're in luck.

Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jackie Loohauis
Jackie Loohauis
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The tone is stillborn and static when it should be ominous and engrossing. The characters fail to connect with the audience. This is a cold, distant, and off-putting motion picture that generates little in the way of tension or suspense.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
01/01/00
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

Pointless

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jay Boyar
Jay Boyar
Orlando Sentinel

Eye of the Beholder is yet another example of how bad movies can happen to good people.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Jay Carr
Jay Carr
Boston Globe

I didn't get it at all, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's going to be a cult classic. It's that oblique.

Full Review Source: Ottawa Citizen | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jay Stone
Jay Stone
Ottawa Citizen

The film's plot degenerates into a psychological mess.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jay Webb
Jay Webb
Dallas Morning News

Sinks under the weight of bad storytelling and the filmmaker's pretensions.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jeff Vice
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Its neo-noir, psych-thriller signifiers don't just provide goofy flash via flashback but service a grief-concerned narrative in which time and space collapse into a surrealist black hole.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jessica Winter
Jessica Winter
Village Voice

An intellectually-challenged slap in the face.

Full Review Source: Norman Transcript | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jim Chastain
Jim Chastain
Norman Transcript
 
 
41 - 60 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
all

Latest News for Eye of the Beholder

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