Eye of the Beholder MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +2 Content: -3

Working for the British Embassy, surveillance expert Detective Stephen Wilson, code-named the Eye (Ewan McGregor), is assigned to watch a suspected embezzler. But when Wilson sees an attractive woman, Joanna Eris (Ashley Judd), kill the suspect, hes attracted to her to the point of obsession. He virtually severs his connections with the British service and follows her across the country watching over her like a guardian angel. Since character motivation involves only a vague explanation about Joannas father abandoning her as a child and the mysterious disappearance of Wilsons wife and daughter, the film becomes a series of disjointed scenes of watcher and the watched. Without sympathetic characters whose actions are tied to stronger motives, the audience is quickly lost in this travelogue. EYE OF THE BEHOLDER is all look and no substance.

This strange tale of career voyeurism not only lacks character motivation but includes gratuitous violence and nudity. Joanna repeated stabs her first victim, then stands naked (rear nudity) in the rain to wash his blood off. Later, shes seen getting into a bathtub with the possibility of implied self-gratification. Prior to shooting a policeman with his own gun, Joanna entices him by lounging in her underwear. At one point, a wealthy blind man becomes engaged to Joanna and she says hes going to be a father, implying an earlier sexual relationship. But he dies in a car wreck caused by Wilson. Wilson later saves her from an attempted rape while shes under the influence of force-injected heroin. But when she finally connects Wilsons face with her past, the plot quickly winds up with a dissatisfying ending. Along the way, viewers are also assaulted by numerous obscenities and regular profanity. Gratuitous violence, nudity, and vulgarity are more than enough to avoid watching EYE OF THE BEHOLDER.

Preview Reviewer: Paul Bicking
Distributor: Destination Films, 1401 Ocean Ave., Ste 301, Santa Monica, CA 90401