Barnes & Noble

An intelligent, frequently harrowing thriller, Eye of the Beholder stresses characterization over plot and action, which distinguishes it from most recent films in this increasingly predictable genre. Ewan McGregor plays a dour surveillance expert working for the British Secret Service. A tight-lipped loner haunted by images of the daughter lost to him following the long-ago breakup of his marriage. Assigned to follow femme fatale Ashley Judd, he develops an obsession with the beautiful murderess and becomes her unseen protector. In adapting Marc Behm's novel, writer-director Stephan Elliott, best known for such offbeat comedies as Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, delineates characters who gradually lose the ability to separate inner conflict from outer reality; McGregor and Judd, finding it impossible to escape their troubled pasts, ultimately yield to their darkest impulses. In the tradition of Hitchcock's Vertigo and De Palma's Obsession, Eye of the Beholder makes for unnerving, nail-biting entertainment. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Part high-tech spy thriller and part psychological study, Eye of the Beholder was Ewan McGregor's first feature film following his mainstream breakthrough performance in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The Eye (Ewan McGregor) is an agent of the British Secret Service, equipped with the latest in high-tech crime fighting gadgetry and assisted by his indefatigable collegue, Hilary (k.d. lang). The Eye's latest assignment is a surveillance project; the son of a well-known politician has been spending a great deal of money on someone, and they would like to know who and why. A little sleuthing reveals that the mysterious person taking the cash is a woman named Joanna (Ashley Judd), but the trail gets much stickier when the Eye witnesses Joanna pulling a knife and killing the politician's son. Normally, he'd take the shortcut to putting her behind bars, but some time ago he lost contact with his daughter when his wife left him; Joanna reminds the Eye of his daughter, and he's too fascinated with her to bring her to justice. The Eye now follows Joanna obsessively, and discovers that she's also involved with a blind man (Patrick Bergin) and has a history of emotional instability from being abandoned by her father at a young age. Eye of the Beholder was directed by Stephan Elliott, best known for the comedy The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 043396050525
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Presentation: Pan & Scan
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español
• Time: 1:41:00
• Sales Rank: 32,160

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