Taglines: Obsession is in the eye of the beholder.
British Consulate investigator Det. Stephen Wilson, a.k.a. the Eye, comes across a disturbed lady serial-killer while on an otherwise mundane assignment. Already a bit psychologically fragile from his wife’s abrupt removal of herself and their daughter from his life (with the lingering memory of his daughter haunting him like a manifest ghost), his psychosis as a displaced dad dovetails with the femme fatale’s psychosis as an abandoned daughter (crying “Merry Christmas, Daddy” over her expired victims). A bond forms, or, rather, an obsession, as the Eye abandons his job to secretively stalk this mysterious woman full-time as she visits many major U.S. cities under various names, leaving numerous victims.
Eye of the Beholder is a 1999 Canadian-British-Australian mystery thriller film that employs magical realism. The film, based on Marc Behm’s novel of the same name and a remake of Claude Miller’s 1983 French thriller Deadly Circuit, is directed and adapted by Stephan Elliott. Starring Ewan McGregor and Ashley Judd, the film is an international co-production of Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
Despite Eye of the Beholder opened in the United States at number-one during the Super Bowl weekend, grossing $6 million on its opening weekend, it was a financial failure in theaters, grossing $16.5 million domestically and $1.1 million overseas for a worldwide total of $17.6 million on a $35 million budget.
About the Story
Stephen Wilson aka “The Eye” (Ewan McGregor) is an intelligence agent whose current assignment is to track down the socialite son of his wealthy boss and find out what trouble he has gotten himself into. This leads him to Joanna Eris (Ashley Judd), a serial killer who is in a relationship with the son, whom she murders. Stephen is a witness to the crime.
At Penn Station in Pittsburgh, Eris commits yet another murder, enabling Stephen to finally corner her as he prepares to call for backup. Instead of turning her in, Stephen follows her in an effort to save her. He hallucinates constantly that his young daughter — whom he hasn’t seen since his ex-wife took custody of her — is with him, and comes to think of Eris as a vulnerable, lost child.
Stephen follows her across the country and through several murders. He soon discovers that Eris and her father were homeless and that he had abandoned her, explaining her pathological hatred of men. When Eris helps a rich blind man (Patrick Bergin) in an airport, the two become involved, fall in love and become engaged, and it looks like they might even live a happy life together. Stephen, who has witnessed all of this, cannot bear to let her go, and is willing to do anything to stop her from having a relationship with another man. While the couple is on the way to the chapel for the wedding, Stephen shoots out one of their tires and the car crashes, killing Eris’ fiancé. Stephen follows a grief-stricken Eris as she takes off for the desert.
A drug addict named Gary (Jason Priestley) picks up Eris when her car dies, and tries to seduce her; when she rebuffs his advances, he beats her unconscious and injects her with heroin so he can rape her while she is unconscious. Stephen arrives just in time to save Eris and gives Gary a thorough beating. Eris loses her unborn baby before fleeing to Alaska, with Stephen on her trail.
Eye of the Beholder (2000)
Directed by: Stephan Elliott
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ashley Judd, Patrick Bergin, Jason Priestley, Geneviève Bujold, Anne-Marie Brown, Kaitlin Brown, David Nerman, Steven McCarthy
Screenplay by: Stephan Elliott
Production Design by: Jean-Baptiste Tard
Cinematography by: Guy Dufaux
Film Editing by: Sue Blainey
Costume Design by: Lizzy Gardiner
Set Decoration by: Guy Blouin, Suzanne Cloutier, Sylvie Desmarais, Martine Kazemirchuk
Art Direction by: Réal Proulx
Music by: Marius De Vries
MPAA Rating: R for some strong violence, sexuality, language and brief drug content.
Distributed by: Destination Films (USA), Universal Pictures (UK)
Release Date: January 28, 2000 (United States), June 9, 2000 (United Kingdom)
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