Eye of the Beholder (2000)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Nice effects though.

Good concept, poorly executed.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

What a stupid movie this is. I could go down the list of everything wrong with this crap, but there's no point. Simply put, nothing makes sense. It's a bunch of abstract, wannabe artsy scenes strung together with a dumb plot and abhorrent dialogue. For the entire movie I just felt bad for the actors - McGregor and Judd - for having to recite this verbal diarrhea. If I had to explain the story, it's basically that Judd's character is a sexy killer and McGregor's character gets a crush on her and starts stalking her. It's so dumb. There are subplots that are made out to be important in the beginning but get a half-assed resolution near the end. The ending itself is abrupt and horrendous. It's just so frustrating watching these characters do and say the dumbest things imaginable. I did get a few good laughs though.I'm not even touching the fact that this is a tech-y investigation movie and how horrifically dated it looks now, but that could be forgiven if there was a good story to follow. As it is, the only defining characteristic of Eye of the Beholder is that it's the worst turd in Ewan McGregor's acting career and also happens to be the name of a Metallica song. Please don't watch this; don't make the same mistake I did.

OK, so many people tend to feel negatively about this film, and I just do not understand it. I LOVE this movie. I can relate to a lot of it, personally. I love the characters, the acting, the sets and cinematography, the costuming, all of it. The music is some of the most incredible I have heard for a film. I read so many people asking the stupidest questions: why did the lady parole doctor not turn her in? If you were not able to read between the lines, I'll help you out. As Joanna is not able to really have a regular, trusting relationship with a man, it makes perfect sense that she and this woman were lovers. Not to mention all the Sapphic hints that were thrown about when the doc was in the film. Genevieve Bujold was BREATHTAKING in her scenes. A powerhouse, that lady. So, when she and Joanna spot each other in the diner, that is why the tears and rush of emotion that they had to keep in check came from. Joanna kills because it sustains her. Robbing wealthy men allows her to maintain a lifestyle that also helps her stay ahead of the law. She is also able to act out her anger and frustrations toward the father that abandoned her on them. The Eye is just pathetic. Emotionally wounded, weak, mousy man too unsure of himself to just step up and do anything definitive. He feels both love and fatherly feelings towards Joanna and I believe they probably confuse him as to how to actually approach her or reach out to her, were he ever ballsy enough to actually do so. This film haunted me the very first time I saw it, and I could not get it out of my head for days. I have bought it on DVD a few times, and it is one of my go-to's. I LOVE THIS FILM. When you watch a film, listen to a song, read a book, anything having to do with the arts, there is a very important thing that you have to have the ability to use and to bring to the table: suspension of disbelief. Those who point out things as mindlessly stupid as "In the scene he is smoking, then when it flashes back to him, he has no cigarette." If you ask questions like this, or notice things like this, you should probably watch the Kardashians and nothing but reality garbage because I think anything with any real artistic merit is going to be beyond your level of comprehension. If you can not just allow these things to pass by (ever thought maybe he threw out the cig? Maybe he smoked it quickly?) then you are really not getting the whole point anyway. So, your watching films and things like this is probably a waste of your time as well as an insult to those who worked very hard to bring it to you. Also, not everyone likes vanilla ice cream. I am not going to force you to eat a bowl of it if you want strawberry. Same with films. Just because something was above your understanding does not mean that it did not make sense. Ever wonder if maybe you might be a little slow? LOVE Ashley Judd and the character and what she did with Joanna Eris. Loved kd lang in her small role too. This is a gorgeous film in just about every way. At least that's how I see it.

Stephen 'The Eye' Wilson ((Ewan McGregor) is a loner investigator for the British Consulate in Washington. He is assigned to investigate an official's son and witnesses Joanna Eris (Ashley Judd) killing him. He suffers from hallucinations of his daughter whom he lost in a divorce. His hallucination convinces him to protect the wayward serial killer and start following her.The movie needs better style from director Stephan Elliott. It's not dark enough to be compelling or paranoid. It's definitely not tense enough to be thrilling. The movie sets up the premise but does few exciting things with it. It has a Hitchcock feel but lacks his expertise. Even the surreal element of his hallucinations need some help. They're not unreal or fanciful enough. This could be something worthwhile if it isn't so unimaginative.

"Eye of the Beholder" is an ultra-slick, existentialist, avant-garde thriller in the tradition of famed Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 cult favorite "Blow-Up." This erotically-charged but enigmatic murder mystery about a British surveillance expert who pursues a seductive American femme fatale without her knowledge from Washington, D.C., to the cold, barren stretches of Alaska casts Ewan McGregor of "Star Wars: Episode One" fame as a relentless, never-say-die gumshoe and sexy Ashley Judd of "Double Jeopardy" as an icy cool, mistress of disguise, serial killer. Although predictability never curdles this superbly lensed cat & mouse chase melodrama, "Beholder" shuns conventional "Dragnet" style narrative clarity and will inevitably frustrate audiences yearning for a straightforward yarn.As Detective Stephen Wilson, known principally as the 'Eye,' McGregor impersonates a younger version of Gene Hackman's electronics espionage wizard in "The Conversation" (1974). Unlike the reclusive Hackman character, Wilson works for the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., but he is no James Bond. Wilson receives orders to shadow the son of a prominent English official. The father suspects that junior has been embezzling money from a trust fund. While spying on this larcenous lad with an anonymous lady friend one evening, Wilson gets the surprise of his life.The drop-dead gorgeous babe chick, Joanna (Ashley Judd), tells her boyfriend that she wants to play a game. Joanna strips to her bra and panties and then lies down on a plastic tarp for her lover to kneel on and knots a blindfold over his face. Sauntering behind him, she brandishes a knife and carves her unsuspecting lover up like a Christmas turkey! Afterward, the blood-splattered siren collapses in a shower of tears, crying out for her long gone father, and then sinks the corpse in a nearby lake.Wilson contacts Hilary (K.D. Lang), a loquacious version of 007's Miss Moneypenny at the British Embassy and reports the homicide. Although he has been taken off the investigation, Wilson goes AWOL and tails the comely criminal without arousing her suspicions. Eventually, Wilson becomes hopelessly infatuated with Joanna. He discovers her true identity after he recovers a sample of her pubic hair from her tub and sends it off to Hilary for lab analysis. The results alarm Wilson because he learns that this exotic woman has a record. Wilson monitors Joanna with an incredible arsenal of electronics equipment as she commits one murder after another. Even more surprising, he abets her afterward by destroying any evidence which might incriminate her! Along the way, we learn bits and pieces about this puzzling secret sleuth and the mysterious serial killer from the expository dialogue that justifies the screen time parceled out to the supporting cast. Stephen Wilson's wife deserted him and ran off with his daughter because his job prevented them from taking up permanent residence anywhere. Riddled with guilt, this troubled detective imagines that his catty little daughter now accompanies him during his surveillance assignments, carrying of improbable conversations with him a la "The Sixth Sense." As for the emotionally distraught Joanna, she suffers from a father complex and cries for her daddy after she slays her victims. When Wilson discovers Joanna's real identity, he learns that her father abandoned her at Christmas when she was young. Eventually, our protagonist tracks down Joanna's mentor, a harridan, Dr. Brault (Genevieve Bujold) who supervised Joanna during her rehabilitation. "I taught her how to survive, "boasts Brault to Wilson during a brief tête-à-tête, "Kill or be killed." What novelist Marc Behm made abundantly clear in his book, Australian writer & director Stephan Elliot prefers to reveal only through motivated action. The characters rarely reveal anything solid about themselves. Literally, you have to piece the puzzle together from everything Elliot puts on the screen. For example, the 'Eye's' name, Stephen Wilson, is shown during a transmission link sequence as well as his occupation as a detective. The crucial bit of information that the filmmakers unobtrusively slip in is that the unstable detective comes to regard Joanna as if she were Lucy, the daughter his ex-wife abducted when she cleared out. Wilson is haunted because he couldn't prevent his wife from abandoning him and the specter of a little girl that shows up in his visions warns him that he cannot afford to lose Joanna. Basically, obsession becomes a nightmare for Wilson. Consequently, he struggles to control Joanna's life. When she tries to settle down with a rich, blind man, Alex (Patrick Bergin), and have a baby, Wilson disrupts her status quo relationship in a jealous fit of rage by assassinating Alex.Although the principal characters do little to endear themselves to us, watching their actions becomes akin to voyeurism. Everybody in this trendy travelogue is as predatory as you can imagine, perhaps with the exception of K.D. Lang's compassionate Miss Moneypenny character and Patrick Bergin's generous-to-a-fault blind man. Particularly loathsome is poster boy Jason Priestly as Gary, a scummy heroin addict who takes advantage of Joanna when her car breaks down in the middle of the desert.Judd has a field day in a role that gives the starlet a makeover of sorts every quarter hour. She decks herself out in all kinds of wigs and wardrobe when she goes after each poor guy. Unlike vulnerable Libby Parsons in "Double Jeopardy," Judd's Joanna is a cold-blooded stalker. Often, her character is compared to a shark, forced to swim forever and kill anything that crosses its path.However, nothing about Judd's Joanna is glamorous, and the filmmakers aren't condoning her murderous activities. She gets her comeuppance in the end, and we don't so much sympathize with her as we pity her.Ostensibly, "Eye of the Beholder" relies on its stunning scenic grandeur, hip electronic orchestral score, personable cast, and the referential narrative qualities of the script to compensate for the omission of a formula, action-oriented plot. Nevertheless, "Eye of the Beholder" is an unusual thing of beauty that too many critics have mistaken for a standard action opus!