Eye of the Beholder

Directed by Stephan Elliott

Review of the film and Columbia/TriStar DVD by Gary W. Tooze

I have read, with furrowed brow,  the pundits, pros and armchair reviewers lambaste this visually spectacular foray into a psychoanalytical regression of two deeply troubled, yet fascinating characters. I have watched the film "Eye of the Beholder" on multiple occasions now, garnering more from each viewing. I freely state my own opinion that this is the most unappreciated, misunderstood film of the 90's. So there!

Ewan McGregor plays the "Eye", a British Secret Service surveillance expert working in Washington DC. With a host of high-tech eavesdropping bugs and spy-cams, he voyeuristically watches an icy seductress, named Joanna Eris (sounds to me like "iris", as in colored portion of your eye) and played by Ashley Judd as if the role was tailor-made for her.

She is suspected of blackmailing the son of an American Senator. Instead of the mundane formulaic thriller that most audiences have been exposed to and unfortunately come to expect, director Stephan Elliott has chosen to spin this yarn focusing totally on the chemistry and psychosis of these deeply disturbed individual characters all within the stylistic ambience of an Michelangelo Antonioni or Robert Bresson-like masterpiece. The "Eye" and Joanna are emotionally scarred and tortured individuals who utilize their respective coping mechanism to exist until they inevitably must collide with each other.

Joanna can never overcome the abandonment by her father, and the Eye can never be the father to his missing little girl. Cool and beautiful Joanna uses her survival skills to prey on men like a black widow spider, escalating to the level of serial killer to admonish them, before they too abandon her. The Eye is severely delusional having apparitions of his daughter appear before him, guiding his decision making process. She is obsessed with astrology and  he now is obsessed with her, though only through the viewing lens of a distant camera or on the screen of his trusty spy-issue laptop.

With a father, could she have normalized into society avoiding the disastrous drifting route her maniacal life of a murderess is taking her? His efforts couldn't be more translucent; to save himself he must save Joanna, since it's too late to save his own lost daughter. The cycle of this paternal relationship is revisited constantly throughout the film with the Eye's hovering over-protective nature and his distrust of the revolving-door of men in her complex life. With painful flashbacks to her childhood, we too are drawn to Joanna, regardless of her femme-fatale status.

Keeping with its unexplainable nature, the film does not judge her. The anonymous masses would prefer it, making the film easier for them to understand. Some of the best films leave us in emotional abeyance.

What we have are two of the most intricate, deeply fascinating characters to adorn the silver screen in a long time. Because of their untypical portraits of a serial killer and hunting detective they are shunned as "unbelievable" by the same crowd that adored "Crouching Tiger...". Likeable?, understandable?.. no, perhaps these characters are not. Joanna's survival instincts and the Eye's obsession melded with each of their bonded and firmly rooted physiological anomalies make them totally interesting and therefore totally appealing in my book. All this wrapped up in a very elegant, stone-cold jazz feel.

"Eye of the Beholder" lends itself much more to the artistic level of cinema than the Hollywood cookie-cutter approach. The camera angles, long pans, sharp cuts and panoramic vistas make this visually splendid in its own right. This imagery helps us to avoid the cloying explanation of the events on screen, which are superfluous to our requirements to enjoy the production.

The beauty of visuals, in general, is the interpretive nature which they are expressed. The dynamic chemistry and grace of these two characters onscreen couldn't be more apparent. Two of the most charismatic actors in the film business playing totally flawed personas. The thrill is not in the capture, but the chase, not in the climax but the foreplay, as their impending meeting is on the horizon. 

My own opinion is that the general population had expectations of this as a run-in-the-mill thriller but its only flaw may actually be by the director Elliott lending "Eye of the Beholder" to that comparison with Hitchcockian homage shots that bind it to that genre. I wonder how this film would have been received if Joanna had been a wealthy widow and McGregor, her gardener. Quite different I suspect.

We all have our peculiarities, and I suppose my adoration of "Eye of the Beholder" may be one of my most glaring. If we all had the same opinion there would be no need to have horse races and for me, this pony came in first.. with a big payday.

out of

FILM and DVD Details 

Once again, in case we forget, Columbia Tri-Star is at the top of the heap (along with Criterion) for DVD production. This gem gives us both the Pan and Scan version of the film and a widescreen 2.35:1 anamorphic one. Trailers are included as an extra as is a wonderfully frank commentary by director "Stephan Elliott" who, realizing he didn't appeal enough to the general population with Eye of the Beholder,  unabashedly points out in the end, that he is looking for work as a bartender. Shame, but he is part of a wonderful DVD...out of

Release Information:
Studio: Columbia/Tristar Studios
Theatrical Release Date: January 28, 2000
DVD Release Date: May 22, 2001
Run Time: 114 minutes
Production Company: Columbia TriStar Home Video
Package Type: Keep Case

Aspect Ratio(s):
Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1
Full Screen (Standard) - 1.33:1

Discographic Information:
DVD Encoding: Region 1
Layers: Single
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
Available subtitles: English, Spanish, French

Edition Details:
• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby
• Commentary by director Stephan Elliott
• Production notes
• Theatrical trailer(s)
• Full-screen and widescreen anamorphic formats