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Ewan McGregor, Ashley Judd, Patrick Bergin, k.d. lang, Jason Priestley ... see more see more... , Geneviève Bujold , Una Kay , David Nerman , Michel Perron , Michelle Sweeney , Vlasta Vrana , Russell Yuen , Louis Negin , Amanda Davis , Gayle Garfinkle , Steven McCarthy , Vera Miller , Nadia Rona , Sam Stone , Charles Powell , Al Clark , Janine Theriault , Donovan Reiter , Howard Bilerman , Don Jordan , Leonard Farlinger , Tom Karle , Al Vandecruys , Anne-Marie Brown , Kaitlin Brown , Maria Revelins , Lisa Forget , Stephane Levasseur , Mauro Venditelli , Josa Maule , Carole Collin , Stephanie Sbrega , Philip Le Maistre , Maria Bircher , Cara Reynolds , Jason Baerg , Carl Crevier , Dr. Erwin Goldberg , Garth Gilker , James Hieminga , Bob Brewster , Merlee Shapiro , Erik Johnson

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 Phant... read more read more...om 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, Rovi

Flixster Users

33% liked it

10,127 ratings

Critics

9% liked it

86 critics

R, 1 hr. 41 min.

Directed by: Stephan Elliott, Stephen Elliott

Release Date: January 28, 2000

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DVD Release Date: May 23, 2000

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Stats: 441 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (441)

  • katykern8261
    August 5, 2011
    katykern8261
    Directed by Stephen Elliott, Destination Films, 1999, Ewan McGregor, Ashley Judd, Patrick Bergin, k.d. Lang and Genevieve Bujold.

    Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller.

    Question: Can a man fall in love with a woman that he's never met, spoken to or doesn't even know her real nam... read moree? Well, in the Eye of the Beholder, they try and answer that question.

    A friend who knows I adore Ewan McGregor told me about this movie. I hadn't heard of it before and was curious to see it. Alright, I see everything he is in, you all know that by now, right? Anyway, I put it on my Netflix queue a few weeks ago and it arrived on Tuesday. I didn't get a chance to see it that night - although I really, really wanted to. So today before I had to pick up the kids from camp I popped it in.

    This is a story about redemption, a thriller, and a love story but not necessarily in that order. Yes, I know what it says above but this is what I saw in this film (Eye of the Beholder, people). I saw a man and a woman who are both so alone, scared and with thoughts of such tremendous loss that they might be a little insane. Okay, one might be more insane than the other. But as the story unfolds I don't think either are really crazy - just lonely and trying to gain some stability in their lives.

    For more of this review: http://www.tiredofpreviews.com/2011/08/eye-of-beholder.html
  • moonrivers
    July 23, 2011
    moonrivers
    Curious tale, a cross-country Rear Window if you can imagine that, about a surveillance agent who obsesses about a woman he's tailing. It's s weird but also somehow mesmerizing.
  • deano
    February 8, 2009
    deano
    Superb... dark and disturbing... beautiful and entertaining... chilling, emotional and thrill-packed between Ewan McGregor and Ashley Judd on their journeys around USA. Stephen Elliott's considerable skills as a filmmaker ensuring that this very classy thriller is not only exciti... read moreng visually but also bold and original.
  • purplemegan
    February 5, 2009
    purplemegan
    Boring. The only thing that redeeming about it was some of the clever camera work otherwise I would have given it a zero. I think it was trying to be too many things at once. It was horribly slow and I had to start doing something else just to stay awake. It was made in 2000 but ... read moreit plays like some trashy 90s film, it looks a lot older than it is.
  • stuartb1234
    January 7, 2007
    stuartb1234
    Did anyone like this movie? I doubt it, was recommended to me by a friend who must have been dropped on his head as a child.
  • dreamfaeries
    November 7, 2006
    dreamfaeries
    Interestingly great.
  • DrStrangeblog
    July 9, 2011
    DrStrangeblog
    There is much more than meets the eye with this one, I suspect. A complex psychological thriller as sheltered surveillance agent McGregor grows obsessed with troubled serial killer Judd - about the one thing I can safely say is that this is not a story you've already seen a doze... read moren times before! I can feel myself wanting to like this because the pieces are there - mystery, suspense, voyeurism, intriguing performances, inventive editing & camerawork. However it's just so damn perplexing, I've seen this three times and I still don't understand what it's all about! Apparently the studio execs had a hand in butchering the director's vision which exists somewhere on DVD. I have to give this a passing grade of three stars simply because of the amount of time it has played with my brain instead of being instantly forgettable, such a rare level of engrossment has to be worth something.
  • SunilJawahir
    March 18, 2009
    SunilJawahir
    A shitty movie with no imagination and nothing interesting to offer.
  • jimbotender
    January 3, 2009
    jimbotender
    Fine material gone bad.Look at Hollywood's shadow.The guy who gave us the parade of Priscilla is drenched on another subject,clever as a thought concerning the sympathy of a "watcher" to his victim,yet attention to detail is such a minor element,so what do we get?Mediocre film wi... read moreth some well-orchestrated cine-tricks.
  • irisheyes686
    August 9, 2008
    irisheyes686
    Really slow-moving and not very many exciting parts. I didn't even think the acting was good.

View All Eye of the Beholder Reviews

Critic Reviews

Jonathan Rosenbaum
March 6, 2007
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

As misogynistic as anything I've seen in ages, it's tricked up with enough fancy cinematography (by Guy Dufaux) to guarantee it sub-Hitchcockian credentials of the sort that some reviewers eagerly han... Full Review

Jeff Millar
July 21, 2005
Jeff Millar, Houston Chronicle

Remove the directorial flash and filigree, and its narrative would be easier to track. Full Review

Rick Groen
April 5, 2002
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail

It's late January, winter is entrenched, and in the lull between the bounty of Christmas and the renewal of spring, the big screen can sometimes seem barren -- a movable famine. Full Review

Peter Travers
May 11, 2001
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

In trying to both inflame and indict our morbid curiosity, Elliott fails to make the needed connection between the audience and a peeper who has lost his moral balance.

Stephen Holden
January 1, 2000
Stephen Holden, New York Times

Impenetrable mess of a movie. Full Review

Terry Lawson
January 1, 2000
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press

Eye of the Beholder is like one of those optical cartoons that were so popular a half-decade back; the more we concentrate, the less we see.

Mike Clark
January 1, 2000
Mike Clark, USA Today

The movie might be worth seeing if you could find a theater that offers frequent-flier miles.

James Berardinelli
January 1, 2000
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

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 litt... Full Review

Mick LaSalle
January 1, 2000
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Eye of the Beholder attempts to convey emotional dislocation and passion at the same time. All we get is distance. Full Review

Robert Horton
January 1, 2000
Robert Horton, Film.com

Not terribly enjoyable to watch.

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